At the margins of the Conference of Presidents of Parliaments of the Council of Europe Member States, the National Assembly Speaker, Nebojsa Stefanovic met with the President of the CoE Parliamentary Assembly, Jean-Claude Mignon.
At the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Mignon expressed his pleasure at the fact that his first bilateral meeting happened to be with the Serbian Parliament Speaker, reminding that he, as a representative of France, is very interested in Serbia and its progress to Europe. He informed Speaker Stefanovic about the main topics of the Conference dealing with the challenges of parliamentary democracy, situation in the Arab world and the future of the Court of Human Rights, undoubtedly one of the most important institutions of the Council of Europe.
According to Mignon, the Council of Europe follows the developments in each of its 47 member states, including Serbia, of course. He noted that the report drafted by the monitoring commission in January of this year shows visible progress in all matters of interest and expressed expectation that the key issues of judiciary reform, fight against corruption, parliament’s role in the control of the executive and freedom of the media will show further progress.
The National Assembly Speaker said that he was honoured that his first meeting in Strasbourg is with the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Stefanovic informed Mr. Mignon that Serbia does all it can to meet the Council of Europe’s criteria and standards and assured him that it would continue the reforms. He listed the priorities of the new parliamentary legislature, strengthening the parliament’s control role, protecting minority rights, judiciary reform and freedom of the media, informing Mr. Mignon of the results achieved in the field in a little more than a month since the constitution of the new government and parliament. Stefanovic stressed the importance of a possible decision to conclude the monitoring period as soon as possible, adding that he was personally open for any initiative that would contribute to the goal.
The President of the CoE Parliamentary Assembly, Jean-Claude Mignon deemed the work of the monitoring commission very important since it is an independent body. He stressed that he would convey all the information shared by National Assembly Speaker Nebojsa Stefanovic in the course of the meeting to the commission members, adding that he wished that the monitoring process would be concluded as soon as possible because, he said, the Council of Europe needs Serbia vary much, since the route Serbia’s taking has a direct impact on the developments in the entire region.
Mr. Mignon concluded that he, as a deputy of France, a European Union country, was very interested in Serbia’s success and its future in the European Union.