The seminar was attended by MPs and parliamentary staff of the Western Balkan countries and Turkey. The National Assembly delegation comprised European Integration Committee members Jadranka Joksimovic and Mladen Grujic, member of the Committee on the Economy, Regional Development, Trade, Tourism and Energy Radojko Obradovic and member of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending Djordje Stojsic.
The participants of the seminar were addressed by members of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament, Theodor Dumitru Stolojan, Marino Baldini, Libor Rouček and Ionut Sibian as well as European Commission experts from the Directorate-General for Enlargement Policy and Strategy and the Directorate-General for International Economic and Financial Relations.
The seminar focused on the global economic crisis and the crisis in the EU, mechanisms employed to contain its impact and how it influenced enlargement, EU candidate and potential EU candidate countries.
The Head of the National Assembly delegation Jadranka Joksimovic spoke about how the global economic crisis influences the activities of the Republic of Serbia on meeting the enlargement criteria and about the activities planned for the upcoming period. Joksimovic informed the participants of the most important adopted legislation which would contribute to fiscal consolidation and reform of state-owned and public companies, and the anti-corruption activities which were commended in the European Commission’s latest progress report. Speaking of social dialogue and the inclusion of all relevant factors, she emphasised the important role civil society plays in containing the impact of the crisis, and in that context, Joksimovic stressed the importance of CEFTA which needs to be better utilized and contribute to the integration of the energy and transport markets and attraction of new foreign investment into the region.