The Chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Predrag Markovic, today met the Speaker of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), René van der Linden, who is currently on a two-day visit to Serbia at the Chairman’s invitation.

Mr Markovic told Mr van der Linden about results of the Assembly’s activities, underlining the fact that its wide-ranging legislative work would yield results only when implementation of legislation starts contributing to a better life to the people of Serbia. Markovic stressed that the National Assembly would continue meeting all obligations undertaken by Serbia as a member of the Council of Europe, and reiterated that greater participation of members of the National Assembly’s Standing Delegation to PACE in its committees and other working bodies. The two parliamentary heads agreed that Serbia’s presidency of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers was a great honour, but also an obligation that Serbia needed to start preparing for at once.

Congratulating Mr Markovic on steps taken by him personally and by the National Assembly as a whole after the Montenegrin independence referendum, Mr van der Linden re-stated that PACE was ready to help Serbia, currently undertaking major reforms, in establishing European standards and values as soon as possible...