Colonel Zoran Lucic, Head of the Advanced Security and Defence Studies of the Military Academy’s National Defence School, greeted the assembly saying that the goal of today’s activity is to present the attendees of the Pilot Course with diplomas to mark the results they had achieved. He said that the Pilot Course on the “Assembly control and oversight of the security sector” was realised within project “Development of the MPs’ capacities for the oversight of the security sector”, aimed at improving the National Assembly’s capacities for the oversight of said sector.

Colonel Miroslav Talijan, Head of the Military Academy’s National Defence School, said that during the realisation of the Pilot Course the attendees had fulfilled all the tasks and goals as was expected of them. He said that the objective of the project is to develop the National Assembly’s oversight capacities so that the MPs can perform their oversight duties even better. Colonel Talijan spoke of the activities realised during the course and thanked the representatives of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, National Assembly, Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces. He said the project had helped reinforce the ties between the most important institutions of the Serbian and international system of security.

Jan Lueneburg, Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia’s Democratisation Department, thanked the MPs and representatives of the Military Academy for the successful realisation of the activities within the Pilot Course emphasising the importance of the cooperation between the representatives of the Serbian Armed Forces and the National Assembly. He congratulated the attendees on the successful completion of the course on the behalf of the Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia Peter Burkhard and himself.

After the presentation of the diplomas to the attendees of the Pilot Course on the “Assembly control and oversight of the security sector”, Major General Goran Zekovic, Head of the Military Academy, wished them luck adding that the Military Academy is open for further cooperation.

Marija Obradovic, Chairperson of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee and attendee of the Pilot Course, thanked the representatives of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Ministry of Defence and the other attendees of the pilot-course for their cooperation and participation. She opined that oversight of the security sector will be one of the MPs’ priorities, and that courses such as this one should become common practice at the National Assembly Obradovic also said that the presence of representatives of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces at the National Assembly is an important step forward in the improvement of communication among these institutions.

The Pilot Course on the “Assembly control and oversight of the security sector” was attended by 14 people, MPs Marija Obradovic, Dubravka Filipovski, Suzana Sarac, Milos Tosanic, Marko Djurisic, Nenad Nikolic, Aleksandar Markovic, Borisav Kovacevic and Sinisa Maksimovic, and representatives of the National Assembly Support Service.

The Pilot Course was co-organised by the OSCE Mission to Serbia, National Assembly and the Military Academy.