National Assembly Secretary General Veljko Odalovic met today in the National Assembly House with the Head of the Political Section of the EU Delegation to Serbia Dirk Lorenz, in preparation of the European Commission's Annual Progress Report on Serbia for 2020.
Veljko Odalovic expressed his satisfaction with the meeting and briefed the guest on the scope of work and procedures in the National Assembly. He pointed out that at the beginning of the current legislature, the Parliament Speaker emphasised the importance of observing the National Assembly Rules of Procedure and made it a practice to organise a meeting of the National Assembly Collegium every Tuesday at 9 am. The Collegium discusses the work of the Parliament, the current parliamentary session and further work plan, which resulted in National Assembly sessions not being convened in less than seven days and the agenda including bills that have met all the conditions needed to enter parliamentary procedure 15 days from the moment of submission. Thanks to this, Odalovic informed Lorenz, 133 laws were adopted in 2020 following regular procedure and 12 by urgent procedure, which is 9% of the total number of laws adopted, and since the beginning of the year, 21 laws have been adopted exclusively by regular procedure.
He mentioned the public hearings held on certain bills of special importance in parliamentary procedure. "Public hearings are the last, final phase in which the MPs have the opportunity to talk to the professional public and representatives of relevant institutions, and improve the proposed laws by submitting amendments," said Veljko Odalovic. Since the beginning of the year, he said, the National Assembly held four public hearings on various bills and topics, while there were three in the previous year, and he announced plans to hold a public hearing organised by the Committee on Constitutional and Legislative Issues. The officials also discussed the upcoming constitutional changes, in the discussion of which the general and professional public will take part.
The Secretary General pointed out that there have been 68 committee sittings in the 12th National Assembly legislature, at which the MPs’ considered ministry activity reports, four of which were held outside the National Assembly seat.
He went on to say that the National Assembly recently adopted the MPs’ Code of Conduct which obliges the MPs to perform their duties conscientiously and to respect other MPs and citizens. He also mentioned the provisions of the Rules of Procedure regulating the MP’s rules of conduct, as well as the sanctions in the form of reprimands or removal from the National Assembly session, which are often accompanied by fines. The Parliament’s control role is realised through the MPs’ seeking information and explanations, mostly from the Government, and asking parliamentary questions of Government representatives on the last Thursday of the month, at a special part of the National Assembly session, the Secretary General pointed out.
Speaking of the National Assembly’s cooperation with the National Convention on the EU, which comprises over 700 non-governmental organizations, the Secretary General pointed out that the cooperation was focused, among other things, on negotiating chapters 23 and 24, i.e. the rule of law.
The meeting was also attended by Deputy Secretary General Srdjan Smiljanic.
