The first panel discussion, part of project Meet your neighbour – European parliamentarian, launched by the European Movement in Serbia, was held on 10 September 2010 in Subotica.

Laszlo Varga, European Integrations Committee Chairman and Committee member Gordana Comic, as well as deputies Radovan Radovanovic, Arpad Fremond, Tamas Tot and Aniko Ziros-Jankelic took part in the proceedings.

The panel discussion was opened by the President of the European Movement in Serbia Maja Bobic, and European Integrations Committee Chairman Laszlo Varga gave the opening address.

European parliamentarians from Hungary Kinga Göncz and György Schöpflin spoke on the role of the European Parliament in the European Union expansion policy and Serbia’s EU accession process, as did Sonja Licht, Director of the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence.

The second part of the panel discussion focused on cross-border cooperation in the Western Balkans EU accession process. Sanda Simic, European Integration Office Deputy Director, Valentina Ivanic, Director of the Vojvodina Centre for Strategic Economic Studies and Imre Szilágyi, researcher of the EU Enlargement Centre from Budapest spoke on the subject.

The participants agreed that cooperation between neighbouring EU countries and Serbia is very important and that the support of European parliamentarians from Hungary is imperative for Serbia’s approach to the EU.

The fact that three of Serbia’s neighbouring countries are European Union members with 71 European Parliament members and that they are aware of the situation in the Western Balkans was also stressed as an additional opportunity to establish better cooperation. That might be of use on Serbia’s road to European integration, lending greater importance to the parliament and parliamentary diplomacy in the integration process.