The Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Maja Gojkovic and the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Gabriela Cuevas Barron presented the Global Parliamentary Report 2017: Parliamentary oversight: Parliament’s power to hold government to account, at the National Assembly House, the result of the IPU and UNDP’s joint research on the activities of national parliaments.
Gojkovic said she was most pleased that the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia has been recognized as a best global parliamentary practice example and that the Global Parliamentary Report 2017 contains a positive assessment of the National Assembly and its members’ work.
Gojkovic said that the Global Report recognizes that the National Assembly enjoys a high degree of civic trust, openness and transparency and has received special commendations for its practices of public hearings which regularly include the general public and independent experts, having sessions outside of the National Assembly seat and including the public in the work of the parliamentary bodies, as well as for setting up the Public Finance Supervision Portal and Parliamentary Budgetary Office.
The National Assembly Speaker said that the Report also recognizes the importance of the six informal parliamentary groups - Women’s Parliamentary Network, Economic Caucus, Green Group, Energy Forum, GOPAC and the Focus Group for the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, made up of both the ruling majority and the opposition MPs, as well as their dedication to other issues of importance for the citizens.
Gojkovic said that the National Assembly will persist in the efforts to bring its work closer to the citizens because it is first and foremost their home and their institution.
“This type of work has proven effective because it managed to resolve certain problems plaguing the citizens and local communities. By meeting in Subotica, Bajina Basta, Cacak, Cajetina our committees have managed to address a number of persistent problems in those communities”, said Gojkovic adding that all of this resulted in an increase of public trust in the National Assembly from 24% in 2015 to 29% in 2017.
The President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Gabriela Cuevas Barron said that the IPU believes in stronger parliaments and parliamentarians because they are the way to strong democracies and citizens around the world expect their representatives to work in their interest and one of those representatives’ jobs is supervisory duty.
UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Steliana Nedera said she was very pleased by the long standing cooperation between the National Assembly and the UNDP, a partnership which has yielded significant results, mentioning as an example the Public Finance Supervision Portal. Nedera also said that the Parliament is working on the identification of Sustainable Development Goals and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda to make its supervisory role even more efficient.
