The Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic received a delegation comprising ten students of the London School of Economics and Political Science. This is the fifth generation of the London School students to express a wish to meet with the NARS Speaker and learn about the work of Serbia’s supreme legislative body. The students come from Australia, Puerto Rico, Greece, China, Italy, Kazakhstan, Croatia and the United Kingdom and study economy, architecture, sociology, international history and political science.

Djukic-Dejanovic informed the students about the work of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and the current political situation in Serbia, stressing that young people should take more interest in political life and added “According to research 85% of young people are dissatisfied with the situation in our society, but only 5% are ready to take up political engagement and help improve the situation”.

Among other things, the students asked the NARS Speaker about the situation in Kosovo-Metohija and negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, the attitude towards NATO and relations with the Russian Federation and China.

The Speaker said that Serbia is firm in its position that it would never recognise the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo-Metohija, but it is seeking solutions to improve the quality of life of the citizens of Serbia’s southern province. The NARS Speaker stressed that Serbia cooperates with all the countries of the world, particularly with EU countries which it aims to join. It is also a well-known fact that Serbia’s foreign policy is oriented towards the four main pillars – EU, China, USA and the Russian Federation. In that sense, the Speaker said that the National Assembly was visited by Chinese National People’s Congress Standing Committee Chairman Wu Bangguo and Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in the past year when they discussed the future steps in the cooperation with the Chinese and Russian parliaments.

In her meeting with the students, the Serbian Parliament Speaker informed them that the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia has created a Children’s Rights Committee as a separate working body to deal exclusively with children’s issues. “This Committee has not only been created at the Serbian Assembly for the first time, but it has received special attention and the status of a separate working body with the highest degree of representation. There are no examples of similar bodies in the region or elsewhere”, said the Speaker.