Saying that it was her honour that the National Assembly Speaker’s first international activity had been with the US Ambassador, H.E. Mary Warlick noted that the National Assembly has been very active in the meantime and asked about the bills that would in the upcoming period be presented before the National Assembly. She was particularly interested in the budget rebalance, as well as the Public Procurement Law. Ms. Warlick stressed that in addition to these legislation proposals it would definitely be important for Serbia’s European integration to pay attention to the rule of law and judiciary reform i.e. the importance of continued negotiations and arrangement with the International Monetary Fund.

National Assembly Speaker Nebojsa Stefanovic informed the US Ambassador about some of the solutions among the measures aimed at overcoming the difficult economic situation and budget deficit the previous government left behind, and which exceeded the legally stipulated norms. Speaker Stefanovic also opined that budget rebalance is necessary because the predictions in the previous budget were unrealistic. He assured his guest that the Parliament would use its authority particularly as regards its control of the executive and respect of the institution of the National Assembly so, urgency notwithstanding, the draft laws would go through assembly procedure within which the relevant committees would give their assessments of the bills. Speaker Stefanovic also touched on the issue of safety of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija in light of Pristina’s celebration of the end of the supervised so-called independence. He drew attention to the fact that attacks on Serbian population, both north and south of the river Ibar, have gained in frequency in the last days and some of the statements of the Pristina authorities give cause for apprehension. In view of the authority the US commands, Speaker Stefanovic expressed an expectation that drawing world public attention and warning of the endangerment of the non-Albanian population in Kosovo-Metohija would prevent further incidents. Finally, he assured his guest that Serbia will have a more constructive attitude in the further negotiations with Pristina, illustrating it by the Serbian state leadership’s readiness to accept the agreements the previous government reached in Brussels, among them the one about the presentation of Kosovo in international meetings. At the end of the meeting he thanked Ms. Warlick on all the efforts she expended to improve the relations between the two countries, and the assistance directed to the Serbian Parliament and Serbia via various US government programmes.