The Serb National Council (SNC), national coordination of Serb national minority, is democratically elected political, consulting and coordinating body acting as self-government of Serbs in the Republic of Croatia

SNC is concerned with protection and promotion of human, civil and national rights of Serbs, and deals with the issues of their identity, participation and integration in the Croatian society. The Council was founded by virtue of the Erdut Agreement and The letter of the Government of the Republic of Croatia on the completion of the peaceful reintegration which guarantee local minority self-government and the right to organize to Serbs, and on the bases of centuries long tradition of Serbian self-government, which goes back to the times of first church/public assemblies, via legal and political acts regulating the position of Serbs in Croatia during the 18th and 19th centuries, to the documents of the State Antifascist Council.

The founding assembly meeting of the Council was held in 1997 in Zagreb at the incentive of the Alliance of Serbian Organizations and its members: Serb Cultural Association Prosvjeta, Serbian Democratic Forum, Community of Serbs from Rijeka and Istria, as well as the Joint Council of Municipalities (JCM). Founding members were also Independent Democratic Serb Party (IDSP), Baranja Democratic Forum, Association of Serbian Refugees and Expellees from Croatia, representatives of some church parishes of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Members of Parliament of Serbian ethnicity and respectable individuals.

Following the adoption of the Constitutional Act on the Rights of National Minorities in 2002, the organizational structure of national minorities’ councils was also changed. Members of councils are elected by secret ballot, in elections organized by the State (so far, six rounds have been held – in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023) in all local self-government units where the Serb population exceeds the threshold of 1.5 percent. At the municipality level, the council is elected if there are at least 200 members of the Serb community living there. At the county level this number amounts to 500. In case when one or more of those conditions is not met and there are at least 100 members, a council’s representative is elected.

By the end of 2023, six rounds of elections were organized. Currently, the SNC network consists of 144 councils with the total of 1.744 councilors.