The Head of the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Finland, Dragan Sormaz, was pleased to have the Finnish Ambassador attend the first meeting of the newly-formed friendship group and stressed the importance of fostering parliamentary cooperation for the further strengthening of overall relations between the two countries.
The Finnish Ambassador deemed the relations between Finland and Serbia excellent, adding that the two countries have close ties and the potential to improve them in the upcoming period. He stressed that their first political priority is to offer full support to Serbia’s Euro-integration process and that the partnership between the two countries should be built within that process. He deemed that an exchange of visits between the National Assembly’s and Finnish Parliament’s committees would be beneficial for future parliamentary cooperation, reminding that Finland, in cooperation with the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence, had launched a project dedicated to women parliamentarians.
In addition to political cooperation, the Finnish Ambassador opined that the two countries’ economic cooperation should receive more attention. There are big companies in Finland interested in investing into Serbia and this is the right moment to attract foreign investment, as Finland can help the development of different spheres such as mining, energy production, trade and forestry.
In the course of the meeting, the members of the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Finland, Maja Gojkovic, Vesna Markovic, Slavica Savic, Olena Papuga, Dr Nikola Jovanovic and Biljana Ilic Stosic made several suggestions on how to improve the two countries’ cooperation in the spheres of culture, education, healthcare agriculture and IT. They also urged for more intense cooperation between parliamentarians, especially those involved in the judiciary.
It was also agreed that a presentation on Finland should be organised soon for the members of the parliamentary friendship group and the MPs.