Today at the National Assembly House, a delegation of the European Union Council’s Western Balkans Committee (COWEB) visiting Serbia from 23 to 26 March, talked in separate meetings with the Chairmen of three assembly committees – European Integrations Laszlo Varga, Foreign Affairs Prof. Dr Dragoljub Micunovic and Justice and Administration Bosko Ristic, and then with National Assembly Secretary General Veljko Odalovic and representatives of independent regulatory bodies. The meetings were dedicated to the Parliament’s role in Serbia’s European integration, reform of electoral legislation, as well as the function of independent bodies and parliamentary oversight.

Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Vincent Degert, who took part in the meetings, stressed the importance of the independent bodies’ role for the development of democracy in Serbia. Degert gave a positive evaluation of the National Assembly’s work due to a large number of adopted laws and other regulations and suggested that more attention be paid to their quality and implementation in practice.

Assembly Committee Chairmen Varga, Micunovic and Ristic pointed out that in 2009 Serbia made significant progress in approaching the European Union which resulted in the liberalisation of the visa regime, Transitional Trade Agreement coming into force and Serbia’s submission of EU candidacy application. They also expressed an expectation that the positive trend would continue this year and that by the end of the year Serbia would receive EU candidate status.

European Integrations Committee Chairman Laszlo Varga emphasised the National Assembly’s key role in creating the conditions conducive to Serbia’s approach to the EU and expressed expectation that, after the adoption of the Law on the National Assembly, new Rules of Procedure would be passed which would enable higher efficiency and quicker adoption of laws connected with the process.

Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Dragoljub Micunovic stressed that the National Assembly is open for cooperation with the parliaments of other countries and EU institutions, that it furthers parliamentary diplomacy and has in the present convocation formed 60 friendship groups with countries around the world. He reminded that Serbia’s accession to the EU is a strategic goal the realisation of which is expected to improve the Serbian citizens’ standard of living. Micunovic said that the National Assembly had adopted almost all of the most important international conventions and laws relating to spheres such as human and minority rights protection, gender equality, prevention of discrimination, fight against corruption and other, but that there was still considerable legislative work ahead in harmonising domestic and EU legislation and amending numerous laws from the earlier period.

Justice and Administration Committee Chairman Bosko Ristic talked about the reform of electoral legislation aimed at creating credible institutions and improving their work. Strengthening the National Assembly’s independence and its supervisory and control role shall come into particular focus, Ristic stressed.

EU Council’s Western Balkans Committee delegation members wanted to know how the increased efficiency of the assembly committees and the discussions of the regulations of the so-called European agenda would be achieved. The officials informed them that the new Rules of Procedure would strengthen the committees’ role, and a better model of debating the Bills at committee sittings would be found in cooperation with the European Integration Office.

In the second meeting, National Assembly Secretary General Veljko Odalovic informed the Western Balkans Committee members that the Serbian Constitution and laws institute the independent state bodies of Ombudsman, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, State Audit Institution and Anti-Corruption Agency. The National Assembly’s cooperation with the independent and regulatory bodies, elected and dismissed by the National Assembly, which also report to it, is particularly important for the supervisory role over the Government’s work, Odalovic said.

The Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Rodoljub Sabic, Chairman of the Council of the State Audit Institution Radoslav Sretenovic and Milica Bozanic from the Anti-Corruption Agency talked about their work and experiences in these bodies.