Twenty selected students, student parliament members participating in project Learn with Europe led by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, completed their two-day visit to the European institutions in Brussels, their reward for the best essays on The Importance of the National Assembly in Serbia’s European integration process.

On the first day of their visit the students attended a session of the European Parliament and were received by European Parliament Members Victor Bostinaru, president of the of the Friends of Serbia parliamentary group, Eduard Kukan, Tanja Fajon and Zoran Thaler, members of the informal parliamentary body. In a very lively discussion the students were urged to take a more active part in social development and speed up Serbia’s progress to full-fledged European Union membership.

On the last day of the visit, Thursday, 11 November 2010, the students had the opportunity to learn more about the work of the European Commission where they talked to the representatives of the European Commission’s Enlargement Directorate, Marek Nohejl and Louis Hersom. Since the EC had recently handed in its report on Serbia’s progress, the students wanted to know about the further process of gaining candidacy status, as well as details on the areas listed as underdeveloped in the report. The students were interested in the EC’s opinion on Serbia’s progress in relation to the countries in the region, the requirements for EU accession, particularly regarding human and minority rights, full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal and the Kosovo issue.

Hersom, who also deals with Serbia’s European integration within the Directorate, stressed that the meeting with the students serves an encouragement to them, and the Commission cherishes the opportunity to talk to young people from Serbia and hear their views and opinions.

The students were also received by H.E. Roksanda Nincic, head of the Mission to EU in Brussels, who welcomed them and highlighted the importance of the project because only through direct contact with representatives of European institutions can the young people of Serbia get specific answers to their queries.

The students declared the visit very significant and useful for their professional lives and future work in the student parliaments they represented in the visit. “The visit was very comprehensive. I am very pleased that we could visit these important EU institutions and have our questions answered by EP and EC members. After we return to Serbia we will share the knowledge we have gained with our colleagues and are already planning various seminars and networking with other student parliaments”, said one of the students.

The project was realised with the cooperation of the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, EU Delegation to Serbia and the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, and was enabled by Telekom Serbia.