At the beginning of the meeting, the officials jointly noted that interparliamentary cooperation between Serbia and the UK intensifies in times of significant anniversaries. Namely, this year marks the 175th anniversary of the establishment of the first UK diplomatic mission in Serbia, and next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the establishment of a Serbian mission in the UK.
NARS Speaker Nebojsa Stefanovic was pleased to note that the recent meeting with the UK parliamentary delegation at the meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Quebec presented an excellent opportunity to exchange opinions and expand the scope of the existing interparliamentary cooperation.
Ambassador Davenport stressed that the National Assembly Speaker’s upcoming visit to the UK and the visit of the representatives of all the parties of the UK Parliament to Belgrade, tentatively planned for March next year, will help further intensify interrelations within the bilateral cooperation, in addition to the one taking place at the level of Serbia’s Euro-integration.
Speaker Stefanovic said that the National Assembly, as well as all the relevant subjects of the executive power, insisted on regional cooperation, and that, in the previous period, he had the opportunity to meet on several occasions with representatives of the parliaments of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, and was expecting the realisation of the initiatives to visit Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Podgorica, as well as the visits of the officials of the countries in the region to Belgrade. Serbia wishes to initiate cooperation projects in the region as, Stefanovic believes, with the minimum common interest they have the potential to enter third markets in the economic aspect, and as part of their participation in international organisations.
On the other hand, Stefanovic stressed that the ruling of The Hague Tribunal in the case of the Croatian generals has not contributed to the improvement of relations with Croatia or reconciliation in the region. The court ruling notwithstanding, Serbia believes that Croatia should work more on the return of the exiled, abidance by and protection of the civil and human rights of Serbs in Croatia, as well as on the responsibility for the doubtless crimes committed in the Croatian army’s war operations Flash and Storm, concluding that there have been no positive gestures of the Croatian powers toward official Belgrade in the past months.
Ambassador Davenport said that he himself was surprised by the difference between the ruling of the court and appeals council of the Tribunal’s ruling in the case of Markac and Gotovina, but the court ruling must be respected. Ambassador Davenport hopes that other possible rulings of The Hague Tribunal would not have a negative impact on the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.
Speaker Stefanovic informed the Ambassador of the National Assembly’s agenda primarily as regards ensuring high-quality discussion and development of procedures which would ensure high-quality legislative activity, as well as a more consistent implementation of adopted laws.
The officials agreed that Serbia needs to be promoted more systematically before the UK public, first of all to ensure further development of economic and cultural cooperation, as well as to create a more favourable context for the furthering of overall relations.

Note:
By accident, the cabinet of the National Assembly Speaker published incomplete and partially incorrect information about the meeting with H.E. Michael Davenport, and we would like to apologise for the mistake.