The Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Maja Gojkovic met today with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, currently in official visit to Serbia.
Gojkovic and Radev said that Serbia and Bulgaria’s shared future makes it imperative to use all the potentials to intensify relations and advance good-neighbourly ties to strengthen and concretize cooperation especially in the fields of infrastructure, transport, energy, education and culture.
Gojkovic thanked Bulgaria for making the integration of the Western Balkans one of the priorities of its Presidency of the European Union Council, stressing that it is Serbia’s goal to become a full EU member and hoping that integration of the Western Balkans would continue to be a priority during the Austrian and Romanian presidency, while Radev stressed that friendly Serbia can count on Bulgaria’s support.
Gojkovic and Radev agreed that developing interparliamentary cooperation is a very important segment of relations between the two countries in view of the fact that parliaments provide the strategic guidelines for social development and play a pivotal role in the harmonization of national legislation with the EU acquis.
Gojkovic opined that there is room to advance the existing interparliamentary cooperation at the level of working bodies, especially the committees in charge of agriculture, tourism, infrastructure and energy, and that the Bulgarian Parliament’s European integration experience is invaluable for Serbia’s legislative harmonization efforts, adding that she plans to visit Bulgaria in the near future to advance these causes.
Gojkovic and Radev highlighted the importance of improving regional and cross-border cooperation, especially stressing through joint projects under the auspices of the Danube Strategy because the Danube has for centuries been the tie that binds the people in the region.
Gojkovic said that the Bulgarian national minority is a bridge of cooperation between the two countries and that the Parliament is working on legislation to improve the position of national minorities and had to that end passed amendments and modifications to the Law on National Councils of National Minorities, and the Bulgarian President agreed that the Serbian Parliament has done a lot toward advancing the field.
