Gojkovic said that the Serbian Assembly has made visible progress in terms of functioning and procedures since the last year’s progress report of the European Commission and hopes that the next Report would be much more positive as regards the Parliament’s work as the Assembly had fully eliminated all the previous one objected to.

Gojkovic added that, as agreed in the inter-party dialogue, the Serbian Assembly had elected a Supervisory Board, thee REM members and tomorrow at midnight ends the deadline to propose two new REM members which will fulfil the last of the obligations agreed upon in the inter-party dialogue.

Gojkovic informed Varhelyi that today, the Serbian Assembly began a debate on the reduction of the election threshold from 5 to 3% which will significantly improve the representativeness of the parliament and add new momentum to pluralism. Gojkovic said that opposition MP Gordana Comic’s proposal was adopted for the Serbian Assembly to discuss her motion for a higher representation of women on the electoral lists so that they make up no less than 40% of candidates.

Gojkovic praised the recent summit of Western Balkans’ parliament speakers and the European Parliament in Brussels and the adoption of the Joint Declaration, saying it was her impression that the EU has not given up on enlargement.

European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said it is imperative that all the achievements and tasks defined by the inter-party dialogue be realized and thanked the members of the European Parliament who helped in the process, stating that building any measure of trust between the two sides is important.

The meeting was also attended by MEPs Tanja Fajon and Vladimir Bilcik.