A delegation of the NARS parliamentary Friendship Group with France visited France between 1 and 5 June 2010 at the invitation of the French National Assembly and Jean Pierre Dufau, President of the France-Serbia Friendship Group of the National Assembly of the Republic of France. The NARS delegation comprised: Natasa Vuckovic, Friendship Group President and Group members, deputies Vesna Marjanovic, Dejan Nikolic, Svetlana Stojanovic and Vesna Pesic. This was a return visit following the French deputies’ visit to Serbia last year.

In Paris, on the first day of the visit, the delegation met with French MPs and senators, friendship group members at the National Assembly and the Senate. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the delegation met with Pierre Lellouche, State Secretary for European Affairs, and Roland Galarag, Director of the Ministry’s Department for Continental Europe.

On 2 June, the French National Assembly organised a roundtable on Economic cooperation between France and Serbia that gathered, in addition to the Serbian deputies and French Assembly hosts, representatives of French companies. Serbia’s economic potential was presented, and the French investors already present on the Serbian market talked about their experience of doing business in Serbia. The Serbian delegation received a special welcome from its French counterparts at the Assembly’s plenary session.

At the Landes department and municipalities of Capbreton and Dax the deputies and representatives of local and regional authorities discussed the potential for establishing cooperation in the sphere of tourism, decentralisation, improvement of local self-government, application of scientific breakthroughs in the field of medicine and spa treatment and tourism.