The standing delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is taking part in the PACE Autumn Session, held from 10 to 14 October 2022 in Strasbourg, Republic of France. At the beginning of the session, on Monday, 10 October 2022, the Parliamentary Assembly confirmed the mandate of the new standing delegation of the National Assembly to PACE.
On Tuesday, 11 October 2022, the Assembly held the discussion on Supporting a European perspective for the Western Balkans, by rapporteur George Papandreou. Elvira Kovacs and Stefan Jovanovic took part in the discussion. In the adopted resolution "The Assembly calls for a new impetus to be given to the European Union enlargement process. In this context, it welcomes the opening of accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia on 19 July 2022. It also commends the diplomatic efforts which have yielded positive results in addressing bilateral disputes including the Prespa agreement between Greece and North Macedonia in 2018, the agreement which led to Bulgaria waiving its opposition to the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia in July 2022 and the agreement on freedom of movement reached on 27 August 2022 by Pristina and Belgrade in the context of the EU-facilitated dialogue.”
In the course of the PACE plenary session, the MPs were addressed by the President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins and the President of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis, as well as the Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to address PACE by videoconference on Thursday, 13 October 2022. The Assembly will hold an urgent debate on “Political consequences of the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine".
In addition, debates are scheduled on countering Islamophobia or anti-Muslim racism, vaccine discrimination and the impact of Brexit on human rights on the island of Ireland. The Assembly is also due to discuss honouring of obligations and commitments by Türkiye, Hungary and Romania.
The Assembly is also due to debate reports on the misuse of the Schengen Information system by States as a politically-motivated sanction, discrimination against women in sports, safe third countries for asylum seekers and illegal measures of migration management.
Head of the delegation Biljana Pantic Pilja and delegation members Elvira Kovacs, Tatjana Pasic, Vojislav Mihailovic, Stefan Jovanovic and Dunja Simonovic Bratic are taking part in the work of the Parliamentary Assembly.
