At the sitting held on 18 March, the Legislative Committee discussed the Report on the Legislative Committee’s cooperation with the OSCE Mission to Serbia. The sitting was attended by Daiana Falloni from the OSCE Mission to Serbia Democratisation Department, and associates.

Talking about the results of the cooperation between the OSCE Mission and Legislative Committee, Committee Chairman Vlatko Ratkovic stressed the importance of the cooperation pointing out that it needed to be improved further. He said that the results of the analysis done by the Legislative Committee in cooperation with the OSCE Mission, lead to the conclusion that the National Assembly greatly influences the final texts of the laws submitted by the Government i.e. that the bills in assembly procedure are considerably modified and altered by amendments. According to him, that contradicts the public opinion present even among the expert public - that the National Assembly accepts the Government’s bills only formally without any significant alterations. In the period covered by the analysis, June 2008 to October 2009, 215 laws were adopted and 979 amendments were accepted modifying 76 laws. Ratkovic added that most of the accepted amendments were submitted by opposition deputies, 392 in all, and 385 amendments submitted by the parliamentary majority and 143 amendments submitted by assembly committees were also accepted.

OSCE Mission representative Daiana Falloni said that the organisation would continue to assist the Legislative Committee and stressed that the data should be made public so as to increase the Parliament’s social esteem.

At the end of the meeting, the OSCE Mission representatives presented the Committee with professional literature that would help them in their future work.

At the sitting, deputy Radojko Obradovic elaborated the Proposal for an authentic interpretation of article 47 of the Law on the State Audit Institution which the Committee members would consider at the next sitting.

The Committee went on to discuss the amendments submitted to the Bills on Scientific and Research Activities, amending and modifying the Law on Innovative Activities, on the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, on Geographical Indications, amending and modifying the Law on State Land Survey and Cadastre and amending and modifying the Law on International Road Transport. The Committee deemed the amendments legally feasible. It also deemed the amendments submitted to the Amnesty Bill legally feasible, except for four amendments that were rejected as incomplete.

The sitting was chaired by Vlatko Ratkovic, Committee Chairman.