The Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, took part in the proceedings of the 33^rd session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, held in Bucharest, 11 – 13 June 2009.

The National Assembly Speaker addressed the participants within the debate on “Strategies and policies aiming to diminish the consequences of the financial and economic crisis in BSEC member states”. In her speech, Djukic-Dejanovic stressed that the world economic crisis may compromise economic trends in both developing and developed countries, but that by sharing opinions on the issue and the active role of parliaments in times of crisis parliamentarians can contribute to overcome the current crisis. She also emphasized that parliaments in times of crisis must not forget the individual. Every parliament, according to Djukic-Dejanovic must dedicate additional efforts to uphold human rights, basic freedoms, and rights of ethnic minorities and endangered categories. Finally, the National Assembly Speaker called on all the countries to concentrate their policies towards more intensive international cooperation, joint economic projects, and harmonized and responsible social programmes aimed at overcoming the crisis more easily.

In the plenary session, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia had a separate meeting with the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Romanian Parliament, Roberta Alma Anastase.

In the meeting, both Parliament Speakers expressed a wish to deepen the already good relations between the Parliaments of Serbia and Romania, particularly on the level of friendship groups and relevant Committees.

The Romanian side confirmed its full support of Serbia’s road to the European Union.

The Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia thanked the Romanian Parliament Speaker on Romania’s principled position regarding the unilateral declaration of Kosovo independence.

Assembly Speaker Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic invited the Romanian Parliament Speaker to visit Serbia next year, which was accepted with pleasure.