At the beginning of the meeting the officials agreed in their estimate that the time is right to expand the framework of cooperation between the two parliaments, in view of the excellent bilateral relations between Serbia and Luxembourg at the level of the executive. National Assembly Speaker Nebojsa Stefanovic informed his host about the current situation in the country, the activities of the legislative power and priorities in the upcoming period which include progressing toward the European Union, fighting corruption, controlling the public debt and consolidating the finances. As regards the Serbian Parliament, Stefanovic stressed the need to strengthen its control of the executive, strengthen the functioning of the assembly committees and within the parliament’s international activities, initiatives, strengthening first and foremost economic cooperation with other countries.
Luxembourg Parliament Speaker Laurent Mosar said that Luxembourg supports Serbia’s progress toward the European Union, stressing that Serbia obviously keeps meeting more criteria necessary to be given a date for the beginning of accession negotiations, every day. He said that the development of trade relations between Serbia and Luxembourg should be better and strengthening economic ties would be in both countries’ interest, primarily considering the fact that Luxembourg is one of Europe’s financial centres.
As regards the visa regime policy, the Luxembourg Parliament Speaker opined that the issue of asylum-seekers needs a pragmatic solution. However, he added that the last few months saw fewer asylum-seekers from Serbia and Luxembourg is on the verge of declaring Serbia a safe country which would significantly reduce the number of asylum-seekers from Serbia and push the open issue into the background.
Responding to his host’s address, the National Assembly Speaker said that Serbia is a very interesting country for Luxembourg as regards economic cooperation in view of the treaties it has with Russia, Ukraine and Turkey which enable practically free export into these countries, both as regards joint investments and trade exchange. He informed his host that in the upcoming period the Serbian economy will prioritize agriculture, which will in next year’s budget be given twice as much funds as before, as well as energy production and mining, branches of the economy which are increasingly more interesting for foreign investors. Stefanovic added that Luxembourg is one of the strongest banking centres in Europe and he believes that the parliamentarians of both countries could give a significant impetus to the strengthening of economic ties.
Luxembourg Parliament Speaker Mosar mentioned the lack of an agreement on the avoidance of double taxation between Serbia and Luxembourg, and the National Assembly Speaker responded that the Serbian parliament would, compliant with the conclusions of the meeting in Luxembourg, initiate an agreement on the avoidance of double taxation and once it was reached the Serbian Parliament would pass it.
Following the meeting at the Parliament, the two speakers gave a press statement in which they agreed in the estimate that the visit of the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia had opened a new chapter in the cooperation between the two parliaments.
Later on, the National Assembly Speaker met with the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign and European Affairs of Luxembourg, Ben Fayot and the members of the Committee. The meeting mostly focused on the Serbian side’s position on Kosovo-Metohija, while a series of foreign policy issues were also discussed.