The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia in cooperation with the Council of Europe Office in Belgrade (part of CE project of support to parliamentary institutions), National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), organised a seminar titled “Parliamentary Practice”, held from 9 to 11 October 2008 in Subotica. The seminar was organised for deputies who have been elected for the first time at the last parliamentary elections in the Republic of Serbia.

The seminar commenced with the presentation of the initial phase of the support programme to the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia (CoE, NDI, UNDP, OSCE).

The participants of the seminar were greeted by deputy Bosko Ristic, Chairman of the Committee on Justice and Administration, who, along with the President of the DPS Deputy Group, Milos Aligrudic, proceeded to talk about the authority and responsibility of parliamentarians, particularly their legislative, control and representative role, as well as the role of deputies in European integrations. International expert Nigel Evans, member of Great Britain’s parliament also talked on this subject.

Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Gordana Comic had a presentation on Serbia in the EU integration process and the perspective of the parliament, a subject that was also elaborated on by the Director of the Serbian Government’s European Integration Office, Tanja Miscevic.

Snezana Stojanovic-Plavsic, a deputy from the previous convocation, talked about balancing personal obligations with deputy duties and active membership in a political party, as well as about the deputies’ legislative, control and representative work in the committees.

The National Assembly’s expert service was also presented at the seminar by Mirjana Radakovic, Assistant to the Secretary of the National Assembly, and as part of it the participants were briefed on the legal procedure, role of the committees in the parliament’s work, support to the deputies by the Research-Library Department and the role of the committees in the parliament’s legislative and supervisory work.

The publication of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) “Parliament and Democracy in the Twenty-First Century” was introduced at the seminar.