On the occasion, Gojkovic said that the Republic of Serbia is dedicated to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals and it is up to the parliamentarians and governments to work together on the implementation of the sustainable development goals, among them most importantly poverty reduction, healthy living, inclusive education, gender equality, access to water, energy and building infrastructure especially regional and cross-border to encourage economic development.

“For us, the implementation of these goals is not just about fulfilling the UN Agenda, it is also an opportunity to encourage development and modernization of the country, conduct reforms and improve our people’s living conditions”, said Gojkovic.

Gojkovic said that this is the reason why the Parliament set up a Focus Group for the Development of Control Mechanisms for the Process of Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and is working on raising the MPs’ awareness on the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals and preparing the National Assembly’s working bodies to monitor their implementation, so she expects the MPs to take active part in defining Serbia’s priorities among the Sustainable Development Goals though the Inter-Ministerial Working Group.

The National Assembly Speaker said that it was exactly because of its activities and results that the Serbian Assembly was singled out as a best practice example at the IPU session in Geneva.

The President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Gabriela Cuevas Barron commended the region of Central and Eastern Europe whose parliamentarians are discussing the Sustainable Development Goals for the fourth time now.

“No region in the world has had as many meetings on Sustainable Development Goals where the parliamentarians can identify their future cooperation priorities. I hope that you will continue finding new areas of cooperation and advance the role of parliamentarians in the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in each of your countries, as well as in the region”, said Cuevas Barron.

She added that the 2030 Agenda can change the world only if the Sustainable Development Goals are implemented with a degree of consistency and the IPU actively supports all the parliaments’ in their self-assessment of the abilities to monitor the implementation. Cuevas Barron said that regional cooperation is vital for the implementation of the Goals, so it is essential to establish dialogue and put all differences aside because the implementation of the Goals is an excellent opportunity to advance interparliamentary cooperation.

“From this seminar we expect recommendations and conclusions that will inspire the parliaments to keep working on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals because we have only 12 years to implement the 2030 Agenda and change the world, which is our duty”, concluded the IPU President.

The participants were also addressed by Minister without portfolio and head of the Inter-Ministerial Working Group on the Implementation of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic Dejanovic and UN Resident Coordinator in Serbia and UNDP Resident Representative Karla Hershey.

Djukic Dejanovic said that the Sustainable Development Goals concern the common man and their realization will help people live better, adding that since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda in 2015 Serbia has been the only country in the region to set up a body for its implementation and actively worked on defining how its realization is to be financed.

UN Resident Coordinator in Serbia and UNDP Resident Representative Karla Hershey opined that the 2030 Agenda is a world map that enables all the countries in the world to develop uniformly. She believes that the national parliaments play a key role and are responsible for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals which are in the Balkans closely connected with the reform processes needed for EU accession.

The participants of the two-day Regional Seminar, parliamentarians for the 11 IPU member states, will discuss the sustainable development agenda and priorities of the states in the region, results obtained by parliaments in the region by overseeing the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals i.e. the role of self-assessment, promoting health-care, role of climate change in compounding poverty and public health and inclusion of youth in social and political process as a prerequisite for an efficient implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, and will also be presented the Global Parliamentary Report 2017: Parliamentary oversight: Parliament’s power to hold government to account.