During her two-day visit to Madrid, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Ángel Moratinos.

Spain is one of five EU member states that have not recognised the independence of Serbia’s southern province so the Serbian Parliament Speaker extended gratitude on its principled support of Serbia’s efforts to preserve its territorial integrity and sovereignty on its entire territory, within the borders recognised by the UN.

Djukic-Dejanovic and Moratinos discussed Serbia’s European integration and the Serbian Parliament Speaker emphasised the importance of Spain’s efforts since it was during the Spanish chairmanship of the EU that the process of ratification of the SAA with Serbia had started. Moratinos stressed that Spain would continue to promote Serbia’s speedy integration into the EU after the ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo. He also assured the Serbian citizens that Spain is their friend in Serbia’s irreversible progress to the EU.

The Serbian delegation, comprising, in addition to the Assembly Speaker, Judita Popovic, NARS Deputy Speaker and Nikola Lazic, head of the parliamentary Friendship Group with Spain, attended part of a sitting of the Spanish Congress of Deputies. Addressing the plenum, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapaterо pointed out that the Spanish chairmanship has seen significant progress toward the Western Balkans’ the European perspective, particularly regarding the deblocking of the ratification of the SAA with Serbia.