The reports were presented by State Secretary at the Ministry of Health Prof. Dr Berislav Vekic. The reports outlined the Ministry’s regular activities and activities concerning European integration and international cooperation, with a special focus on the European Union pre-accession funds. The IPA funds have improved the position of the users of residential institutions for persons with physical and mental disabilities by creating the necessary conditions for their inclusion in the society and local community. The project is the result of cooperation between the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Health.

State Secretary Vekic also briefed the Committee members on the details of project Reconstruction of Clinical Centres in Serbia (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis and Kragujevac). He said that the revision of the final documents of the main clinical centres project, as well as the preparation of the tender documentation have entered the final stage. The Novi Sad clinical centre project is ready to be granted a building permit, while the work on the Nis clinical centre is expected to be completed by the end of 2016. Though a draft version of the main project for the Kragujevac clinical centre has been completed, the project designer requested an unjustifiably high compensation to complete it, so it was decided to reject the request and go ahead with the contracting for the completion of the work based on the draft version.

The Committee members unanimously accepted the three Ministry of Health reports: for the period January-March 2015, April-June 2015 and July-September 2015.

Under item any other business, the Committee Chairperson presented the civil petitions sent to the Committee, and after deliberation the Committee members decided to forward them to the competent ministries to be reviewed and processed.

The Committee members decided to give a positive response to the request of the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) and the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (SCC) asking it to join the public-private dialogue and help solve the healthcare problems troubling the municipalities and cities as the founders of healthcare institutions at the local level. The Committee decided that the representatives of NALED and SCC should be received by the Committee Chairperson and two Committee members – Dr Ljubica Mrdakovic Todorovic and Dr Darko Laketic.

The sitting was attended by Committee members Dr Vesna Rakonjac, Dr Predrag Mijatovic, Prof. Dr Mileta Poskurica, Ljiljana Kosoric, Dr Milan Latkovic, Dr Darko Laketic, Milena Corilic, Dr Aleksandar Radojevic, Dr Aleksandar Peranovic and Dr Ljubica Mrdakovic Todorovic.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairperson Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic Dejanovic.