Ambassador Vico presented the future priorities of the Serbian diplomatic mission to the Netherlands. He said that the Netherlands are one of the founders and an important member of the European Union, with significant influence on the enlargement policy. The Dutch Parliament is an important factor in the country’s foreign policy, said Ambassador Vico, adding that boosting parliamentary cooperation between the two countries should be a point of particular concern. In addition to economic cooperation which has a lot of underexploited potential, Ambassador Vico underlined the importance of cooperation with the Dutch legal institutions.

In the continuation, Committee Chairman Milos Aligrudic informed the Committee members that MP Sanda Raskovic Ivic, a member of the Committee, would be awarded the title of honorary citizen of the municipality of Castelli in the Italian region of Abruzzo, due to her special contribution to the development of cultural and economic cooperation at the level of municipalities between Serbia and Italy.

In the continuation of the sitting, on 1 October 2013, the Committee gave consent to the Chairperson of the Committee on Labour, Social Issues, Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction, Milica Dronjak to take part in the meeting of chairpersons of committees on labour and social issues held as part of the parliamentary dimension of Lithuania’s presidency of the EU Council, on 10 and 11 November 2013, in Vilnius. The Committee also granted consent to the organisation of a seminar on the parliament’s role in combating corruption, to be held at the National Assembly, on 29 November 2013, at the initiative of PACE, and to the participation of MPs Dubravka Filipovski and Marija Obradovic at the conference on Women Entrepreneurs – Pillars of Economic Development, from 11 to 13 October 2013 in Herceg Novi, Montenegro.

The Committee noted the regular activities of the National Assembly standing delegations and adopted the reports on visits and contacts realised in the previous period.

The Committee members also conducted an interview with Ognjen Pribicevic, newly-appointed Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia to the United Kingdom, before his deployment to diplomatic duty. Ambassador Pribicevic said that his priorities, in line with the Government’s foreign policy, would be directed toward persuading the UK to take a more favourable position on Kosovo-Metohija, as well as toward improving economic, scientific and cultural cooperation. Pribicevic stressed that the UK supports Serbia’s EU accession, adding that the exchange of visits between parliamentary delegations should be boosted.

At the sitting, the Committee members also noted the amendments and modifications to the membership of the Parliamentary Friendship Group with the Netherlands, and MP Dragomir Karic was elected the new Head of the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Iraq.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Milos Aligrudic and Committee Deputy Chairperson Irena Vujovic.