The agenda for the sitting of the Committee on Defense and Security held on 3 April, contained questions for the Director of the Security Information Agency, Sasa Vukadinovic.

The sitting, chaired by the Committee Chairman, Dragan Todorovic, was attended by Sasa Vukadinovic, SIA Director, and associates. Considering that the sitting was attended by six Committee members and that it had no decision-making quorum, the sitting was held in line with article 77, paragraph 7 of the National Assembly Rules of Procedure.

The Committee Chairman informed the present Committee members that he had received a request for a postponement of the sitting signed by seven Committee members. The request proposed that before they request answers from the SIA Director regarding the Agency’s activities, the Committee members jointly establish a strategy and manner in which the Assembly would monitor the activities of the security services.

In the discussion, the Committee members deemed that the answers expected from the SIA Director require that the sitting be closed to the public, which cannot be done at this sitting due to the lack of decision-making quorum. They also stated that, at the closed sitting, they will not withdraw the requests to receive specific answers from the SIA Director to the questions they had posed during the discussion of its 2008 Activity Report and the Report on the state of security in the Republic of Serbia.

Security Information Director Sasa Vukadinovic said that he will answer all the Committee members’ questions when the conditions for it have been met expressing readiness to organise the closed sitting at the SIA offices.

Closing the discussion, the Committee Chairman announced that he will convene a Committee sitting as soon as possible to agree on a strategy and manner in which the Assembly would monitor the activities of the security services.