National Assembly Deputy Speaker and member of the Working Group for the improvement of the Parliamentary Dimension of the South East Europe Cooperation Process Gordana Comic met today, at the National Assembly House, with the Head of the Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Cooperation in South East Europe Mariana Vitanova and representative of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Petra Blass-Rafajlovski.

Emphasising the importance of further development of regional cooperation on all levels and development of good-neighbourly relations, the officials discussed Serbia’s priorities during its chairmanship over the South East Europe Cooperation Process (June 2011-2012) one of which is strengthening the SEECP Parliamentary Dimension. They also talked of the activities the National Assembly is to organise for the duration of its chairmanship ending in June 2012. Three meetings of the SEECP Parliamentary Dimension Working Group will be organised in cooperation with the Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Cooperation which will be preceded by meetings of national parliamentary cooperation coordinators for the countries in the region. They spoke in detail about the agenda for the third meeting of the Working Group to be held in October 2011. Combating corruption and potentials for the improvement of economic regional cooperation among Western Balkan countries were highlighted as topics of particular interest for the meeting. They also discussed the organisation of the Tenth Conference of SEECP Parliament Speakers to be held in Belgrade in the first half of 2012.

They also discussed the planned activities of the Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Cooperation and the coming meeting which will be held in late September this year.

Gordana Comic also informed the guests on the National Assembly’s current activities, particularly the European agenda. She stressed that, during its chairmanship, the Republic of Serbia is particularly dedicated to the continuation of democratic processes and promotion of European values in SEECP states aimed at speeding up the European integration process of all the countries in the region.