Presenting the quarterly report on National Assembly Activities, National Assembly Chairman Predrag Markovic emphasised that the National Assembly had completed a number of activities aimed at transferring powers from the former State Union of Serbia and Montenegro to the Republic of Serbia, based on the decision adopted by the National Assembly on 5 June 2006. Since 23 July, the National Assembly has entered into possession of its Nikola Pasic Square House, over a century since that building was designed; the House is already host to sittings of several Committees and part of the National Assembly Support Service.

Over the last three months, the National Assembly held four sittings, and adopted 18 laws. The Assembly’s priority has been, and remains, the parliament’s oversight role; it continues the practice of encouraging other institutions to implement adopted laws. Mr Markovic especially underlined the response of three institutions in this process: the National Bank of Serbia, which adopted the necessary bylaws to regulate the field of banking and insurance; the Ministry of Health, which reported to the Assembly Chairman on how local authorities were assuming healthcare responsibilities, and the deputies, who continued the practice of asking deputies’ questions (the number has nearly doubled since the present Assembly was constituted, while ministries and other government bodies provided more replies). Mr Markovic again reminded the public that the Republic of Serbia lacked an audited final balance of the budget, adding that the auditor is in the final stages of selection, thanks to the good co-operation between the National Assembly’s Finance Committee and the World Bank. Mr Markovic announced changes to the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, which will enable the body to complete the process of assuming all transferred responsibilities. Markovic expressed his assurance that the sitting scheduled for 12 September – where the deputies are to be presented the Report on the Course of Negotiations on a Political Solution for the Future Status of Kosovo and Metohia – would see the National Assembly confirming all issues critical to Serbia’s negotiating position in the Kosovo talks; such a joint opinion would mean that the Assembly, the institution providing the mandate for negotiation, fully supported the negotiating team.

Mr Markovic also announced that a total of 152 articles of the proposed new Constitution for Serbia had been harmonised between the two expert teams representing proposers of both texts. Work on the remainder of the body text, and alternate provisions, is to be finished by the end of the week; the Constitutional Issues Sub-Committee is then to discuss the text to be put to the vote in the Constitutional Issues Committee and circulated for public discussion.

Markovic invited all interested journalists to contact the National Assembly Support Service if they wished to visit National Assembly House and tour the building where part of the deputies’ work is to take place, along with that of the Support Service and the journalists covering Assembly sittings.