The NARS standing delegation took part in the second regular session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe held between 25 and 30 April in Strasbourg. The delegation comprising Dragoljub Micunovic, delegation head, Zeljko Ivanji, Milos Aligrudic, Dragan Todorovic, Natasa Vuckovic and Elvira Kovacs took active part in the plenary session, as well as the work of the Political Affairs Committee, Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Committee on Equal Opportunities of Women and Men and the Committee on Culture, Science and Education.

Among the delegation’s various activities we would like to mention the following:

1. Delegation head Dragoljub Micunovic talked to the PACE Secretary General T. Jagland, as well as Chairman of the PACE Political Affairs Committee Bjorn von Sydow about the destroyed mobile and land telephone transmitters in Kosovo-Metohija.At the initiative of delegation members Milos Aligrudic and Dragan Todorovic, the delegation submitted a written declaration to the Parliamentary Assembly condemning the destruction of the telecommunication transmitters in Kosovo-Metohija.

2. At the initiative of the Serbian delegation head, a meeting was held with the Monitoring Committee’s newly elected rapporteurs for Serbia (Sinikka Hurskainen and Davit Harutynyan) on the upcoming activities in the monitoring process and creating the appropriate conditions to begin the post-monitoring dialogue as soon as possible.

3. At the Political Committee the deputies took active part in the debate on the presented report and pre-draft of the resolution on the “Situation in Kosovo and the role of the Council of Europe” which was preceded by a meeting between the delegation head and rapporteur Bjorn von Sydow in which certain complaints to the text of the report were voiced.

4. At the plenum, the Serbian delegation members talked about the resolutions on:

a)Lobbying in a democratic society (Doc. 11937) Zeljko Ivanji and Natasa Vuckovic
b)Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity (Doc. 12185): Elvira Kovacs
c)Women and the financial economic crisis (Doc. 12195): Elvira Kovacs
d)Protection for “whistleblowers” (Doc. 12006): Elvira Kovacs

By voting at the plenum the delegation members contributed to the adoption of the resolution on Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity that provoked a live debate and divides among the deputies along political lines, as well as the resolution on Protection for “whistleblowers” particularly endorsed by Transparency International. The deputies made a significant number of contacts with foreign parliamentarians.

In addition, Natasa Vuckovic was elected Vice-Chairperson of the PACE Socialist Group, Elvira Kovacs was elected Vice-President of the European People’s Party (EPP), and Milos Aligrudic was elected rapporteur for “Strengthening democracy through the reduction of voting age to 16”. The delegation deems the session very successful in view of raising its visibility at the CE and creating pre-conditions for a more active participation in upcoming PACE activities.

Head of NARS Standing Delegation at PACE

Prof. Dr Dragoljub Micunovic.