Opening the meeting, Dr Vladimir Orlic opined that the cooperation between the National Assembly and the National Convention is excellent, stressing that the Parliament strives, whenever it can, to include civil sector organisations in its activities so that the public could be kept informed, though debates, public hearings, discussions, presentation of programmes and joint deliberations on the integration process, of what exactly is being done and where these efforts are leading.

Natasa Dragojlovic spoke on the behalf of the National Convention. She first presented the Convention’s 21 working groups which aim to follow and assist in the negotiations on all 35 chapters, and ultimately reach a broad social consensus on the EU accession and key reforms accompanying the process.

The participants of the meeting exchanged opinions on the negotiations, especially on chapters 10 and 22, and also discussed interparliamentary and regional cooperation.

They agreed that the Convention is an important factor in keeping the public better informed about the process of negotiations with the EU and concluded that the cooperation between the Parliament and organisation should be intensified.

On the occasion, Orlic said that there is ample room for the National Assembly and the Convention to join forces and tackle the integration process and all the issues deemed important for it. He added that parliamentarians attempt to predict what issues would be the important, discuss them, get ready and present them to the citizens via public hearings, and suggested that they organise a joint public hearing with the Convent in the near future.

“I also think it would be useful to establish a channel of communication with the European Parliament so that the parliamentarians from both sides could get in touch, establish a high level of understanding and exchange opinions on issues of strategic importance for our society”, concluded the Head of the National Assembly’s delegation to the EU-Serbia SAPC.

The meeting with the Head of the National Assembly’s delegation to the EU-Serbia SAPC Dr Vladimir Orlic was attended by representatives of the National Convention on the European Union Natasa Dragojlovic, Ivana Lazarevic, Sasa Milasinovic and Ivan Knezevic.