On 9 July 2015 the delegation met with the Chairman of the European Integration and Regional Cooperation Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska, Branislav Borenovic and the members of the Committee, the Chairman of the Economic Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska, Dusan Beric and the members of the Committee, as well as the Minister of Economy of the Government of the Republic of Srpska Zlatan Klokic.

Aleksandar Senic said that Serbia supports the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Dayton Agreement according to which the Republic of Srpska and Serbia have the right to special relations. Serbia wishes to have the best possible relationship with Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are some outstanding issues such as the people accused of war crimes in the 1990s civil war. These issues should be resolved by courts according to the principle of individual, not collective culpability, since there were crimes on all sides.

The officials said that the European integration of the Western Balkans should be sped up and that after Croatia’s EU accession, Serbia is the leader of the region as regards European integration. The countries in the region should work together closely in order to improve economic cooperation (by developing road and energy infrastructure) and cooperation in the European integration process.

In the meeting with the European Integration and Regional Cooperation Committee, the officials suggested organising a joint meeting of the committees in charge of European integration from all three parliaments in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the National Assembly’s European Integration Committee. They also suggested organising a meeting of representatives of the local self-governments from border municipalities in the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Srpska with the topic “How can local self-governments best use European Union IPA 2 funds”. Besides the representatives of the local self-governments and the two parliamentary committees, the organisers would also invite representatives of the executive and the EU delegations in Serbia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The National Assembly delegation comprised, besides the Committee Chairman, Committee members Dusica Stojkovic, Ljubisa Stojmirovic and Branko Ruzic, and the visit was organised in cooperation with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.