19 November 2015 The members of the Foreign Affairs in meeting with the members of the Committee for Romanian Communities Living Abroad of the Romanian Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies

19 November 2015 The members of the Foreign Affairs in meeting with the members of the Committee for Romanian Communities Living Abroad of the Romanian Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies

Thursday, 19 November 2015

Foreign Affairs Committee Members Meet with Members of Romanian Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies Committee for Romanian Communities Living Abroad

The members of the Foreign Affairs Committee met today with a delegation of the Committee for Romanian Communities Living Abroad of the Romanian Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies, headed by Mihai Deaconu.


Committee Chairperson Aleksandra Djurovic stressed how important Serbia considers its good-neighbourly relations with Romania and that it is ready to resolve all issues with this country through friendly dialogue.

“We appreciate Romania’s support of Serbia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as its support of Serbia’s path to the EU”, stressed Djurovic.

She opined that the cooperation between the two parliaments is at an admirable level and applauded the cooperation of the Serbian and Romania delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which could be expanded to include cooperation between the two countries’ delegations in other international organisations.

Chairperson Djurovic also reminded the Romanian colleagues of last month’s trilateral meeting of the Bulgarian, Romanian and Serbian parliamentary committees on foreign affairs/policy at the level of the Craiova Group in Sofia, where they discussed cross-border cooperation, cooperation in the spheres of tourism, infrastructure and energy, as well as the current migrant crisis in Europe. On the occasion the Serbian side initiated the institutionalisation of the cooperation between the three parliaments by the signing of a memorandum of cooperation, which is expected to be completed at the beginning of next year, said Djurovic.

Djurovic said that all the political parties making up the National Assembly are in agreement that European integration is Serbia’s foreign policy priority and the Assembly is hard at work passing laws to harmonise the Serbian legislation with the EU acquis, she concluded.

The head of the delegation of the Committee for Romanian Communities Living Abroad of the Romanian Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies Mihai Deaconu commended the initiatives for the continued cooperation between the two parliaments, but at the same time he outlined the difficulties of the Romanian community living in Serbia such as education, religious service and media/information in the mother tongue, and the recognition of the Vlach minority and language which Romanians believe to belong to their community.

Committee Deputy Chairman Zarko Obradovic informed the Romanian colleagues about the education, lack of textbooks in Romanian and adequate teaching personnel, as well as the legislation employed to overcome them. He also reminded them that, pursuant to the country’s legal system and international conventions, every citizen of Serbia has the right to freely declare their ethnicity, in line with which Serbia recognises 22 national minorities.

Committee member Dijana Vukomanovic said that each national minority group in Serbia has several political parties which require only 1,000 signatures to be registered, which itself is an answer to the question of national identity.

The officials agreed that all European countries should treat their national minorities the same, and Committee Chairperson Aleksandra Djurovic restated that there is room to improve the position of the Serbian minority in Romania and Romanian minority in Serbia and the two parliaments could support the work of the mixed commission tasked with these issues.

Besides the Committee Chairperson, the meeting was also attended by Committee members Zarko Obradovic, Dijana Vukomanovic and Milorad Mijatovic.

The delegation of the Committee for Romanian Communities Living Abroad of the Romanian Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies also included Sorin Teju and Eugen Tornac.



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friday, 29 march
  • 9.00 - the National Assembly Speaker meets with the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, Speaker’s Cabinet)

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