Informing the guest about the work of the Committee she chairs, Sandra Bozic stressed that during the current mandate, the Culture and Information Committee has completed considerable work in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Information, resulting in the adoption of more than ten bills concerning crucial areas of culture. She added that the adoption of an umbrella law on cultural heritage is expected in the coming period.

The Chairperson of the Culture and Information Committee especially praised the fact that the 2022 Budget Bill, adopted this week in the National Assembly, allocates more than 1% of the budget to the Ministry of Culture and Information, exceeding the European average, because of the country’s exceptional economic results achieved despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Sandra Bozic went on to emphasise the importance of parliamentary diplomacy, with the hope that Serbia and Georgia’s parliamentary relations would be further improved through the cooperation of their respective committees in charge of culture.

The Chairperson of the Georgian Parliament’s Culture Committee Eliso Bolkvadze pointed out that the field of culture is becoming extremely important for Georgia which is currently working on a new culture strategy, as well as implementing important reforms in the area.

The officials agreed that cultural diplomacy is very important and emphasized the significance of the "Ethnology Fest", held in Belgrade under the patronage of the wife of the President of the Republic of Serbia Tamara Vucic, where Georgian designers will be presenting their work.

They also agreed that it would be mutually beneficial to organise days of Georgian culture in Serbia and Serbian culture in Georgia, opining that this would contribute to the long-term cooperation between our two countries.

The officials also discussed the importance of equal participation of women in political and social life. Sandra Bozic pointed out that women in Serbia managed to increase their visibility and participation in politics, and that today, thanks to the introduced quotas, 40% of MPs are women and 50% of ministerial positions in the Government went to women, at the suggestion of the President of the Republic Aleksandar Vucic to the then Prime Minister Designate Ana Brnabic. We are still working on increasing the number of women in management positions in local self-governments, Bozic went on to say.

The meeting was also attended by Culture Committee members on Rozalia Okresz and Snezana Paunovic, member of the Georgian Parliament’s Culture Committee Khathuna Kvitsiani, as well as the non-resident Georgian Ambassador to Serbia David Dondua.

In the course of the meeting, Rozalia Okresz, as a member of the Hungarian national minority, especially emphasised that Serbia, through its norms and institutions, ensures the nurturing and preservation of the national and cultural identity of minority communities, while Snezana Paunovic thanked Georgia for its principled position and respect for Serbia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. The largest part of the Serbian cultural heritage is located on the territory of the southern province of Kosovo-Metohija, so it is important that we have friends, such as Georgia, who understand the injustice done to us, Paunovic stressed.