The Head of the Negotiating Team Tanja Miscevic said that the talks between Serbia and the European Union will be an ongoing topic of discussion at the National Assembly in the coming years. The status of the Negotiating Team was determined in 2012 by the establishment of 35 task groups for each of the negotiating chapters, comprising representatives of the relevant ministries and governmental bodies, and that status was further defined by the establishment of the 25-member core Negotiating Team in 2015. Miscevic briefed the Committee members on the activities and documents the Negotiating Team is soon to be submitting to the Committee, primarily the report on the course of negotiations during the Dutch presidency of the EU in the first half of 2016, followed by negotiating positions for chapters 25 and 26, and proceeded to brief the Committee on the work done on chapters 20, 29, 33 and 5, noting that Serbia is well aware and understands that further opening of chapters necessitates reporting on Chapter 35.

Then each of the members of the Negotiating Team in charge of the chapters introduced themselves to the Committee members.

The Committee members were then presented negotiating chapters 23 – judiciary and fundamental rights, and 24 – justice, freedom and security, i.e. the steps following their opening in July 2016. The Head of the Negotiating Team Tanja Miscevic said that the next step is a visit of European Commission members in October were the matrix for the implementation of the chapters will be presented. Miscevic also added that Serbia has its own mechanism to follow the progress according to the action plans for each of the chapters and that the European Commission’s matrix will be presented to the European Integration Committee.

The Committee also decided that MPs Dusica Stojkovic and Gordana Comic are to represent it at the parliamentary conference on “Monitoring IPA Funds: Achievements and Challenges”, to be held on 16 September 2016, at the National Assembly.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairperson Marinika Tepic, and attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Vesna Markovic, Zarko Micin, Marko Blagojevic, Dragan Sormaz, Branko Ruzic, Petar Jojic, Aleksandar Stevanovic, Gordana Comic, Dr Muamer Bacevac, Haji Milorad Stosic, Dubravka Filipovski and Balint Pasztor, as well as the Chairman of the Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee from the ranks of MPs Dr Vladimir Orlic and a representative of the National Convention.