The Head of the Parliamentary Friendship Group, Jelena Travar Miljevic, said that the National Assembly is very interested in cooperating with the Danish Parliament, evidenced by the Group’s considerable membership. She pointed out the importance of the two countries’ bilateral military cooperation adding that said cooperation, declared excellent by both sides, is expected to continue in 2013 and expand onto the air force, flying safety and defence system reform in the domain of human resources. She also reminded that the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Danish Government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding on non-refundable financial assistance to the Republic of Serbia via the Local Economic Development Programme in the Balkans (LEDIB), as well as an Agreement on the implementation of a four-year programme in the private sector in support of the fruit and berries sector in south Serbia. She also listed other fields of cooperation in which Serbia and Denmark could achieve significant results such as IT, the food industry, textile industry, construction, metal and wood processing industry and environmental protection.
The Head of the Parliamentary Friendship Group thanked the Ambassador for Denmark’s support of the efforts Serbia invests getting a start date for the EU membership talks.
Ambassador Nielsen said she believes the decision on the start date for the talks would be a positive one for Serbia, considering that Serbia, according to her, has met all the requisites. Speaking of economic cooperation, the Ambassador pointed out that the agricultural production in Serbia needs to be modernised and highlighted the importance of the Danish support as regards agricultural innovation in Serbia’s southern municipalities.
In the meeting with the Danish Ambassador, Parliamentary Friendship Group members Dragomir Karic, Dubravka Filipovski, Aleksandar Pejcic, Oto Kismarton and Ana Novkovic shared some suggestions on how to expand the existing cooperation between Serbia and Denmark in the spheres of management, agriculture and especially the role of women in agriculture, gender equality and sport, and pointed out the opportunity to use Denmark’s experience as a member of the Nordic model to find a similar cooperation model among the Balkan states.
The meeting was also attended by Parliamentary Friendship Group members Milica Dronjak, Zlata Djeric and Milan Lapcevic.