Today, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia paid an official visit to the Republic of Bulgaria. In addition to the NARS Speaker, the delegation also comprised deputies Zoran Petrov of the FES Deputy Group and Nebojsa Randjelovic of the LDP Deputy Group.

The Serbian delegation met with the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria Tsetska Tsacheva and Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria Boyko Borisov.

In the meeting with the Bulgarian Parliament Speaker, Djukic-Dejnovic was pleased at the both countries’ readiness to seek out new areas of potential cooperation not only on the state level, based on their 130-year-long diplomatic relations, but also develop friendship between the two nations. The National Assembly Speaker added that this visit would also add another important component - parliamentary cooperation. And it is the deputies themselves that would open new roads of cooperation on the governmental level via cooperation between friendship groups, European Integrations Committees and Foreign Affairs Committees.

Tsacheva emphasised that Bulgaria strongly favours Serbia’s European integration and with this in mind stressed that she would assist Serbia in its next steps toward full-fledged European Union membership. The Bulgarian National Assembly Speaker stressed that the Republic of Bulgaria greatly appreciated the decision to allow its citizens to travel through Serbia using only their identification cards, because that is an appropriate gesture for neighbouring countries.

Talking to Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, the officials stressed that, despite the difference in opinions regarding the independence of Kosovo, it is necessary to strengthen regional cooperation which is very important for the European integration process.

Djukic-Dejanovic and Borisov agreed that infrastructural projects such as Nis-Sofia highway are the ones that can improve regional cooperation. “It is only by broad cooperation based on the principles of international law and mutual respect and understanding that we can hope for a speedier progress towards our common goal – accession to the European community of nations”, Djukic-Dejanovic stressed.