Sharing his pleasure at the meeting, National Assembly Speaker Nebojsa Stefanovic said that joining the European Union is Serbia’s foreign policy priority and thanked the head of Slovenian diplomacy for the support he offered in his comments on the start date for EU talks. Being granted the start date, continued Stefanovic, would be a turning point because the past actions of the European Union and its member states have encouraged us to persevere on the road to reform. We will continue to work on reaching the standards and we have ourselves initiated the processes concerning to chapters 23 and 24 of the pre-accession talks related to the rule of law and harmonisation of the national and European Union judiciary, concluded Stefanovic. As regards the Brussels Agreement, Stefanovic said that Serbia would continue to work on implementing what was agreed on, hoping that Pristina would follow suit. Speaking on the two countries’ bilateral relations, Stefanovic opined that they are on a continuous rise, especially in the past year, saying that the Parliament’s new ruling majority is committed to improving them further. As regards parliamentary cooperation, Stefanovic emphasised the importance of parliamentary friendship groups which should, according to him, work on bringing the two nations closer together. The National Assembly Speaker especially commended the cooperation between Serbia and Slovenia in regional initiatives and announced the visit of the Slovenian Parliament Speaker, Janko Veber, to Belgrade, on 2 and 3 July. Stefanovic also highlighted the importance of economic cooperation, ventures onto third markets and said he was grateful for the many Slovenian investments into Serbia. Serbia and Slovenia enjoy friendly relations and Slovenia expects the European Council to decide to grant Serbia the start date for EU talks, said the head of Slovenian diplomacy, Karl Erjavec adding that Serbia had achieved a lot in the last year. Erjavec also said he expected the European Union Council of Ministers to state a positive opinion on Monday, in Brussels, when the heads of diplomacy will be voting on the issue. The head of Slovenian diplomacy opined that the two countries’ economic cooperation is very good, pointing out that now Serbia invests into Slovenia, which he believes very good in view of Slovenia’s important investments into Serbia. Erjavec agreed with Stefanovic that there is considerable room to further economic cooperation by venturing onto third markets, especially the vast Russian market, as well as Central Asian markets. Agreeing with the assessment that a difficult job awaits Serbia after it receives the start date for European Union talks, Erjavec said that he was sure Serbia will again complete its job successfully. The head of Slovenian diplomacy also said that the visit of the Slovenian Parliament Speaker, Janko Veber, to Belgrade again proves that a new dimension of relations has been opened between Slovenia and Serbia.