Fabrizi said that the European Commission adopted the progress reports containing the assessment of accession criteria, state-of-play and recommendations what to do to meet said criteria immediately after the European Parliament elections.

He said that this year’s report on Serbia is very much moving in the same direction as the previous noting that Serbia is making good progress in terms of economy, focusing on the rule of law, functioning of democratic institutions and public administration reform.

The Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia said that he views this meeting as a good place to exchange opinions on the report and encourage the initiative to improve the work of the parliament, stressing that the EU firmly believes in the parliament’s role and working outside of it is not a good sign.

Gojkovic opined that, political assessment notwithstanding, the report contains a number of segments which can be improved by joint efforts. She noted that the part of the report relating to the Parliament’s work mentions the Alliance for Serbia which is not a parliamentary party nor had it taken part in the last parliamentary election, saying that even in EU countries parliamentary parties are not treated the same as the one not in it.

Gojkovic said that she had invited the representatives of the opposition to a Collegium, a practice she intends to continue, and expects the parliamentary groups to submit proposals how to improve the Parliament’s work in writing.

Gojkovic said she was pleased to see certain parliamentary groups and MPs who had been boycotting the plenary come back during the last few sessions, also noting that the ruling majority MPs no longer submit as many amendments as before.

Gojkovic said she cannot agree that the protests in Serbia had been fully peaceful and the incursion into RTS which was upsetting to many of the citizens, was not noted and she regrets to say that some MPs had taken part in the incident.

Gojkovic said that other countries in the region where opposition parties do not take part in the operation of the parliament since the constitution still get better reviews in the progress report.

Gojkovic said she was ready to work harder to make sure the next report is better, adding that the Serbian Assembly cooperates very closely with the civil society when formulating the country’s negotiating positions.

Speaking of the work of independent bodies, Gojkovic said that the competent committees had reviewed the reports and would, in communication with the parliamentary groups, strive to speed up the process of reviewing the conclusions by the plenary.

Fabrizi said that it is essential to improve the parliamentary scrutiny of the executive and establish reviewing the conclusions and recommendations of independent bodies as regular practice.

The Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia said that the goal is to continue working together and that he intends to present the progress report to the European Integration Committee as well.