The National Assembly, especially in the course of the current legislature, has become an institution open to cooperation with civil society, said Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, adding that for nine years running the NARS has opened its doors to the youth via the internship programme. This year, out of the 145 applicants, 20 candidates have been chosen to become interns at the same time as the previous generation receives its diplomas.

The National Assembly Speaker hopes that the knowledge the students who attended the student internship programme in 2011 have gained in the course of the programme would persuade them to tie their professional career to this institution. Djukic Dejanovic advised the future interns to view the events and relationships in their full course and context so as to be able to truly understand them, particularly in this, election year, a year of political challenges at the National Assembly.

The fare-well ceremony for the students who attended the student internship programme in 2011 and reception of the new interns was attended by the Secretary General of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Veljko Odalovic and the Director of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Serbia Thomas Kelly.