The sitting was chaired by Milos Aligrudic, Committee Chairman, who stressed that the National Assembly’s foreign policy activities achieved by the participation of the National Assembly’s standing delegations in international organisations and institutions and the activities of parliamentary friendship groups would have priority. The Committee will also exchange visits with foreign parliaments and take part in the Parliament Speaker’s foreign policy activities.

Aligrudic suggested that the Committee prepare an overview of the National Assembly’s important foreign policy events which are, as a rule, known several months ahead, so that the delegation members could adequately prepare for these activities.

The Committee suggested that the National Assembly Speaker, MA Nebojsa Stefanovic, should appoint the heads of the National Assembly’s standing delegations to international organisations and institutions as soon as possible, in collegium with the heads of the parliamentary groups.

The Committee accepted the initiative of the Norwegian delegation to the Council of Europe PA to visit our country on 5 and 6 September and deemed beneficial the acceptance of the invitation extended to the National Assembly Speaker to take part in the European Conference of Presidents of Parliaments of Council of Europe member states, in Strasbourg, on 20 and 21 September. They also accepted the invitation to send representatives of the National Assembly to the meeting of the Bureau of the Council of Europe PA, in Nice, on 3 September and the Interparliamentary Conference on Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Security and Defence Policy held in Paphos, Cyprus, on 9 and 10 September.

At the sitting, the Foreign Affairs Committee accepted several initiatives to send National Assembly delegations to various international gatherings. Among them are: the event “Days of transfiguration of Serbs in Romania” held on the relation Timisoara-Basjas-Sokolovac from 18 to 20 August, 22nd Economic Forum “EU enlargement: progress or status quo” of the Warsaw Institute for Eastern Studies, to be held in Krynica, Poland, from 4 to 7 September, World conference on e-parliament, in Rome, from 13 to 15 September, Fifth Meeting of the Inter-Orthodox Network for Initiatives and the Study of Religions and Injurious Cults, in Novi Sad, from 24 to 27 September.

A delegation of the National Assembly will also take part in the 39th Meeting of the Economic, Commercial, Technological and Environmental Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, in Chisinau, on 26 and 27 September, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly autumn meetings in Tirana, Albania, from 5 to 7 October 2012 and the Panel on foreign trade and investment in the Mediterranean of the Mediterranean PA, in Morocco, on 14 and 15 September.

In addition, the Committee accepted the invitations to send National Assembly delegations to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s 81st Rose-Roth Seminar in St. Stefan, Montenegro, from 15 to 17 October and the 7th plenary session of the Mediterranean PA and the meeting on the “Constitutional changes in Bosnia and Herzegovina” in La Valletta, Malta, from 10 to 13 October.

It is also planned to send the members of the National Assembly’s standing delegation to the 58th annual session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, in Prague, from 9 to 12 November, as well as the 39th meeting of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation PA’s Legal and Political Affairs Committee, to be held in Athens, on 17 and 18 October.

The Committee also adopted several reports on the parliamentary visits, meetings and talks realised between National Assembly representatives and foreign parliamentarians and representatives of international parliamentary and other organisations.