The National Assembly Speaker thanked Ambassador Varricchio for his significant contribution to raising the level of relations between Serbia and Italy, as well as for Italy’s and his own support of Serbia’s Euro-integration efforts, hoping that Serbia would be granted a start date for the talks by the end of June. Stefanovic emphasised the importance of Italian investments into Serbia and Ambassador Varricchio’s contribution to the strengthening of all types of bilateral cooperation, deeming it very important that the governments of Serbia and Italy are to hold a joint session in September.

Stefanovic said that, following the elections in Italy, he expected parliamentary cooperation to continue and expand. The Serbian Parliament will, after Serbia is granted a start date for the talks with the European Union, greatly benefit from the Italian Parliament’s experience and assistance, said the Speaker hoping that after his departure from Serbia to his new post of diplomatic advisor to the Italian Prime Minister, Ambassador Varricchio would continue to work toward developing the relations between Serbia and Italy.

Ambassador Varricchio was pleased to note that Serbia has achieved considerable progress in its Euro-integration in the past four years, adding that he was sure that it will commence the European Union accession talks. Varricchio also deemed that the bilateral relations have progressed significantly in the previous period and that after the parliamentary elections, the time is right to continue and strengthen the two countries’ parliamentary cooperation.

The officials agreed that the two countries’ dignitaries should continue to meet in the near future, to that end renewing the initiatives for visits at the parliamentary level.