Today at the National Assembly, the President of the Democratic Party of Serbia Deputy Group, Milos Aligrudic talked to the members of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Monitoring Committee, Andreas Gross and Artemy Karpenko about the reasons why the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia did not dispatch a delegation to the regular PACE session in January, the amendments and modifications to the National Assembly Rules of Procedure and the issue of live broadcasting of assembly sessions.

Milos Aligrudic stressed that the key reason why a National Assembly delegation did not take part in the regular PACE session is the ruling coalition’s lack of will to send one to the session. He briefed the rapporteurs on the reasons why the National Assembly had no representatives in either the regular plenary PACE session or committee sessions, criticising the ruling coalition’s bad attitude towards the deputies of the opposition deputy groups.

The meeting also touched on the subject of the Proposal of the Decision amending and modifying the National Assembly Rules of Procedure, to be discussed on Tuesday, 10 February. The DPS Deputy Group President repeated the position that this Decision Proposal is not in line with the Constitution, and that it was drafted without consulting with representatives of the opposition parties at the National Assembly. He also added that the opposition representatives will protest the way in which the new Rules of Procedure propose the time for discussion of amendments.

The officials exchanged opinions on the need to broadcast the National Assembly sessions live. Milos Aligrudic reminded the PACE Monitoring Committee rapporteurs that the live TV broadcast is a legacy of the 1990s and emphasised his dissatisfaction with the Public Broadcasting Service’s reports on the activities of the opposition parties at the National Assembly deeming it prejudiced. They also exchanged opinions on different models of broadcasting the National Assembly sessions.