On Monday, 21 February 2011, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic held the first lecture at the School of Negotiation Skills on Negotiations between Deputy Clubs organised by the Youth Team Initiative at the Faculty of Political Sciences.

The Speaker opened the lecture saying: “Negotiations are a controlled process of communication aimed at resolving the clash of interest between two or more reasonable negotiating sides. It is a form of social interaction, co-existence in difference i.e. the art of adaptation. It must be understandable and its final result is compromise”.

“In negotiations, the least depends on the words you say, only 7%, and as much as 55% of the message you are sending depends on body talk, while 38% depends on vocal intonation”, stressed the Speaker.

Through many examples of negotiations at the National Assembly, the NARS Speaker and students debated who negotiators are, what situations call for negotiations and what might be expected from negotiations.

As a psychiatrist, Djukic-Dejanovic informed the students that two principles are at work in our lives – pleasure principle and reality principle. The pleasure principle appears in the first days of one’s life, and in time is replaced by the reality principle. “There is no reality without negotiation”, stressed the Speaker, adding that it is important to keep in mind that “only hedonists, proponents of the Epicurean school and children in the first days of life lack the communication that necessitates negotiation. Negotiation is always essential and may you be successful in it”, wished the Speaker.