Speaker of the National Parliament and Acting President of Serbia Natasa Micic and U.S. Ambassador William Montgomery will open the Information Resource Center of the Serbian National Parliament on Wednesday, June 4 at 14:00.

The U.S. Embassy joined the Serbian National Parliament, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the IBM EPEE (Economic Policy for Economic Efficiency) Project to establish this new resource center, which will give Members of the Serbian National Parliament and their staff access to research tools and will improve the Parliament’s legislative operations and outreach to its citizens.

From a Memorandum of Cooperation signed by the U.S. Embassy, NDI, IBM EPEE and Speaker Natasa Micic in September 2002, the donors helped to conceptualize and coordinate the project, which involved renovating a room, acquiring furniture, computers, a server, other electronic equipment, books and reference material. Assisting the Members of Parliament and their staff will be two experienced librarians who were recently hired by the Parliament’s Secretary General's office. The U.S. Embassy has made arrangements for the librarians to receive training at the Hungarian Parliament Resource Center in the near future.

Through the Internet and on-line legal subscriptions, Members of Parliament and their staff will be in a better position to review other countries’ legislation for comparative and best practice purposes. This will also allow Members of Parliament to develop a more thorough knowledge in their areas of expertise. As a result, the Serbian National Parliament will greatly increase its capacity to debate and amend legislation, and thus better represent public interests.

The opening of the Information Resource Center is the latest of several cooperative efforts between the U.S. Embassy and the Serbian National Parliament. In February 2003, through the U.S. Agency for International Development IBM EPEE Project, a technical support center and web site were launched, which have helped the Parliament to improve both its internal and external communications, including access to e-mail.

Media are welcome to attend the opening of the Information Resource Center, located on the ground floor of the Serbian National Parliament at Kralja Milana 14. Media should assemble there by 13:45 on June 4.