The Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic and a number of NARS Deputy Speakers received a delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska, headed by its Speaker, Igor Radojicic.

Djukic-Dejanovic and Radojicic agreed that mutual and regional parliamentary cooperation should be extended and announced a meeting between representatives of assembly bodies in April in Banja Luka.

The NARS Speaker believes that the parliament of the Republic of Srpska could be an important bridge of cooperation between Serbia and the parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the country’s elected government. Radojicic emphasised the need to deepen regional cooperation, stressing that the Republic of Srpska is willing to take part in establishing better regional relations. The Republic of Srpska Assembly Speaker believes that Belgrade and Zagreb set the positive tone of the relations, but that Sarajevo should take much more part in regional relations.

Radojicic reminded that, based on the results of the October election, all the institutions in the Republic of Srpska had been established and are successfully functioning, which is not the case on the level of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina where the parties which won most votes still cannot reach an agreement so that most of the common institutions are still inoperative.

Djukic-Dejanovic invited Radojicic to the First Conference of Parliament Speakers of Danube Region States and Regions to be held on 5 and 6 April 2011 in Novi Sad, aimed at strengthening the position of the parliament in the implementation of the Danube Strategy.