On 29 January, the chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Gordana Comic, met activists of Ukrainian NGOs at Assembly House. The visiting delegation will be in Serbia from 28 January to 2 February 2007.

Ms Comic acquainted the visitors with activities of NGOs in Serbia, stressing that both politicians and political parties on the one hand, and NGOs, on the other, needed a new role after 2000. In her words, NGOs have become very powerful over the past several years, and have found their place in society; their most important role in Serbia today is to assist the democratisation of political parties.

The most important NGOs have been involved with human rights issues and further improving democratic institutions, and have also contributed to education, improving the position of women, and local issues. Ms Comic especially underlined that a Resolution on Joining the EU had been adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia in October 2004 with the support of the European Movement in Serbia.

The Ukrainian visitors expressed their interest, among other issues, in ensuring gender equality and providing for women’s participation in Serbia’s parliament and political life in general. Ms Comic said that the new Serbian Constitution contained a gender equality provision, as well as that there was a requirement that at least one-third of all parliamentary deputies need to be women.