At the sitting held on 5 April, the Foreign Affairs Committee considered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2010 Activity Report presented by Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic.

The sitting was chaired by Prof. Dr Dragoljub Micunovic, Committee Chairman.

Minister Jeremic said that continued European integration, defending Serbia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity by diplomatic means, regional cooperation and economic diplomacy remain foreign policy priorities. Serbia is pursuing a balanced and independent foreign policy aimed at gaining European Union candidacy status, as well as a date to commence negotiations, by the end of the year.

Jeremic estimated that the current Government has so far done the most as regards European integration listing as examples the visa liberalization, ratification of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between Serbia and the EU, and sending the answers to the European Commission Questionnaire in record time. Two political requisites still wait to be fulfilled – full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal and strengthening regional cooperation, said the Minister.

He stressed that, after the International Court of Justice ruled on the independence of Kosovo, the Ministry worked hard to, first of all, limit the number of recognitions, prevent Kosovo from joining international organisations gathering sovereign states and initiate a dialogue with Pristina so as to reach a compromise solution for Kosovo’s future status. Jeremic also said that after Dick Marty’s report on trafficking in human organs in Kosovo was adopted at the Council of Europe, Serbia has urged launching an international criminal investigation into the allegations under the mandate of the UN Security Council.

Serbia intensified relations with numerous states across the world, many of them members of the Non-Aligned Movement, said Jeremic announcing that the jubilee conference of the Non-Aligned Movement at the ministerial level would be held at the beginning of September in Belgrade.

At the end of his address, Minister Jeremic stressed that Serbia was facing challenges rarely faced by any country and underlined the impact of the economic crisis on European countries which might reflect on the EU enlargement process. Therefore he urged the National Assembly to stand united and overcome its political differences.

The Committee members criticized the Ministry’s activities before the International Court of Justice as well as the announced Non-Aligned summit in Belgrade. They also said that Serbia’s foreign policy is one of discontinuity rather than continuity but of compared to the previous Government which is also evidenced in the achieved results. Minister Jeremic was asked several questions about the talks between Belgrade and Pristina.

The Committee went on to accept several initiatives to send National Assembly delegations to meetings of international organisations and institutions. Among them, they accepted the invitation to the meeting of the General Committee on Political and Home Issues of the Central European Initiative Parliamentary Dimension in Rome on 6 and 7 April and OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Bureau in Copenhagen on 10 and 11 April. In addition, Serbian delegations will take part in the Conference of Parliament Speakers of the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative in Budva from 11 to 13 April and the 124^th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Panama from 15 to 20 April.

The Committee accepted the invitation to the Second Operational Meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean Panel on External Trade and Investments in the Mediterranean in Geneva on 4 and 5 May.