10 February 2016 National Assembly Deputy Speaker Veroljub Arsic and the delegation of the World Jewish Restitution Organization

10 February 2016 National Assembly Deputy Speaker Veroljub Arsic and the delegation of the World Jewish Restitution Organization

Wednesday, 10 February 2016

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Veroljub Arsic Meets with Delegation of World Jewish Restitution Organization

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Veroljub Arsic met today with a delegation of the World Jewish Restitution Organization currently visiting Belgrade.


The delegation commended the Bill on remedying the consequences of the seizure of assets of Holocaust victims with no living legal heirs, stressing that Serbia would be the first signatory country of the Terezin Declaration to pass a bill of this kind.

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Veroljub Arsic informed the delegation of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, headed by Judge Ellen Heller, that the National Assembly is discussing the Bill right now and all the parliamentary groups in the National Assembly have announced that they would be voting in its favour. He opined that this is very important for Serbia because it proves that, despite political differences, its citizens are united when it comes to this issue.

“Through our unity, we would wish to remedy eight decades of injustice. By passing this Bill we will round up the process of restitution of the property seized in 1941. Restitution of property seized from the Jewish people is most important because we wish to compensate the damages done to them even though we are not truly responsible for the injustice they suffered since Serbia was under occupation and its citizens shared the same destiny”, said Arsic.

He announced that, once the Bill is passed, Serbia will organise an international conference, with the help of USAID and GIZ, on the law’s goals and results, to share best practice examples with the other countries preparing to pass a law like this.

“I believe there will be no problems in the implementation of the law because the Parliament considers both the adoption of the law and its results equally important. This conference would be the beginning of the final realisation of the Terezin Declaration”, concluded the National Assembly Deputy Speaker.

On the behalf of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, Judge Ellen Heller thanked the Serbian Government and the National Assembly for the adoption of the law regulating the issue of property seized from the Jewish people during the Holocaust. She said that this was a model other countries should follow.

“I was in Terezin in 2009, when 46 countries and their 800 representatives signed the Declaration and I know that Serbia is the only country to be adopting a law such as this. I believe that not only the Jewish community, but all organisations and democracies appreciate this example of the rule of law”, said Heller.

The members of the delegation of the World Jewish Restitution Organization were very enthusiastic about the idea of the international conference on the effects of the law and offered help in its organisation. The members of the Jewish community in Serbia who attended the meeting said they were very pleased to have been able to take part in the Working Group that drafted the Bill, adding that its message is more moral than material because the remedy it offers for the years of injustice is a symbolic one and a message for the society as a whole.



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thursday, 28 march
  • 9.00 - consultations of representatives of the parliamentary groups about the election of deputy chairpersons of the National Assembly working bodies (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, hall 1)

  • 10.00 - visit of the students of Stevan Dukic Elementary School to the National Assembly House (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square)

  • 11.00 - visit of the students of Drinka Pavlovic Elementary School Student Parliament to the National Assembly House (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square)

  • 11.00 - press conference of the Green-Left Front – Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)оwn Parliamentary Group (National Assembly House 13, Nikola Pasic Square. Central Hall)

  • 13.00 - the National Assembly Speaker meets with the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of Serbia (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, Speaker’s Cabinet)

Full event calendar