Deputies, representatives of seven Assembly Committees paid a study visit to the Republic of Slovenia between 3 and 7 May, as part of the Project of Strengthening the parliamentary committees’ capacities for poverty reduction in Serbia implemented by the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence in cooperation with UNDP and financial support of the European Commission.

During their stay in Ljubljana the deputies met with representatives of the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, the parliamentary Committees on Labour, the Family, Social Policy and Disabilities; for Petitions, Human Rights and Equal Opportunities; on Culture, Education and Sport, of local self-government and NGOs.

In Murska Sobota the deputies visited the Roma Union and a Roma settlement, as well as the Municipality of Murska Sobota. The Serbian delegation was also received by Predrag Filipov, Serbian Ambassador to Slovenia.

The study visit gave the representatives of the National Assembly an opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge about the economic situation in Slovenia and its Government’s measures for overcoming the economic crisis, including successful negotiations on postponing loan payment for underprivileged groups of citizens; the principle of dealing with redundancy by having the state pay the employees and finance their additional training and retraining until the company recuperates by using European structural funds to their full extent (almost 100%), through various and well-connected providers of social welfare; through a network of institutions which include OSI into the job market – both civilian and private sectors, which actively cooperate with the state as the Social Work Centres stress the necessity of a centralized data collection system on the welfare beneficiaries, providing services concerning social benefits in one place, with partial discretionary right of choice concerning the benefits, as well as the position of ethnic minorities recognised by the Constitution (Italians, Hungarians, Roma) and the unfavourable status of other minorities from the territories of former SFRY, including the Serbian minority, and the problem of “deleted” citizens.

The hosts also briefed the guests on the position of Roma in Slovenia, which is, among other things, regulated by the Law on the Roma, the successful cooperation between the civilian society and the Parliament in shaping new policies through communication between the civilian sector and the committees when deliberating on a bill and participation in public hearings, the functioning of the mechanism improving the position of women and fight against violence against women, among other things, through a developed network of mother’s homes, safe houses, various programmes directed towards both the victims and perpetrators of violence using ex-perpetrators as lecturers; action “White Oath” taken by high-school graduates raising the age-group’s awareness on the fight against violence against women, cooperation between the Parliament and the Ombudsman’s Office in Slovenia which includes the Ombudsman’s active participation in the sittings of appropriate committees so as to provide an opinion on the bills and active discussion of the Ombudsman’s proposals in the annual reports, as well as the inclusion of women on the Slovenian political scene and the difficulties those women encounter and the promotion of volunteering and its importance for underprivileged groups and the society as a whole.

15 deputies and 4 representatives of the National Assembly Support Service took part in the visit organized by the Ljubljana Peace Institute.