In the meeting with the Turkish Parliament Speaker, Cemil Çiçek, the two countries were said to enjoy a high level of cooperation, which has become especially apparent in the last few years. The Turkish Parliament Speaker said that Turkey considers Serbia the key country in the region and suggested that the existing parliamentary cooperation be raised to a higher level, primarily via friendship groups. Mr. Çiçek invited National Assembly Speaker Nebojsa Stefanovic to visit Turkey which was accepted with pleasure.
The Turkish side proposed, in view of the shared problems, as well as historic, cultural and economic ties, the creation of a parliamentary assembly of the Regional Cooperation Council.
The National Assembly Speaker deemed the cooperation with Turkey within the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly favourable and thanked it for the support extended to the Serbian delegation in the work of the representatives of the 47 parliaments making up the organisation, which coincided with the Turkish representatives’ position of Chairman.

The National Assembly Speaker also met with Baroness Frances D’Souza, Speaker of the UK House of Lords.
At the beginning of the meeting, Speaker Stefanovic noted that there have not been any high level meetings between the representatives of the two parliaments and deemed it the right time to expand the scope of parliamentary cooperation. Stefanovic also noted that, in the progress toward the European Union and meeting its standards, any experience, particularly as regards the improvement of the parliament’s operation and its control role toward the government, is invaluable for Serbia. As regards the status in the PACE, Speaker Stefanovic requested UK’s support in bringing Serbia’s current status to a close and moving onto the next stage since, he believes, all the recommendations from the monitoring process have been realised.
Baroness D’Souza declared parliamentary exchange highly beneficial for both countries because, she says, we can learn a lot from one another. The Baroness mentioned that she had visited Serbia on several occasions and Belgrade, which she deemed a metropolis of the region, has left a lasting impression.
They agreed on reciprocal visits of the UK and Serbian parliament speakers.

The meeting with the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Reuven Rivlin, mainly focused on the two countries’ bilateral relations, problems the two countries faced in the past and similar positions in the Balkans and Middle East.
The Israeli Parliament Speaker was pleased, he said, to meet such a young parliament speaker, stating that the world belongs to the youth and mentioning the high percentage of young people in the Knesset. The officials fully agreed on the role of the parliament, first of all that of control over the executive, and Mr. Rivlin offered his extensive political experience in the Israeli Parliament.
Exchanging opinions on the current political events, both agreed that imposed solutions cannot work on either the Balkans or the Middle East.
In the course of the meeting, the officials scheduled a visit by the National Assembly to Israel.

The meetings with the Austrian and Swedish Parliament Speakers, Barbara Prammer and Per Westerberg, respectively, mainly focused on the high number of citizens of Serbian origin living in these countries which represent bridges of cooperation with these countries.

Having agreed on expanding the scope of parliamentary cooperation, particularly via friendship groups, as well as at the highest level, with the Austrian and Swedish delegations, Speaker Stefanovic extended open invitations to their respective parliament speakers to visit Serbia.

The National Assembly Speaker also met with the Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the President of the Swiss National Council, the country with which Serbia is to share the presidency of OSCE in 2014 and 2015.
With Mr. Hansjörg Walter it was agreed to intensify parliamentary contacts in order to approach the joint presidency with a common agenda.
In the meeting with Mr. Ognjen Tadic, it was stressed that, in addition to the special ties Serbia shares with the Republic of Srpska, the scope of the cooperation with the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina should be intensified in line with the highest standards of regional cooperation between neighbouring states.