National Assembly Deputy Speaker Gordana Comic opened the gathering expressing her hope that, by learning together and establishing a national action plan, the participants could enable the creation of the prerequisites necessary for the development of a more open public administration in Serbia. When criticising public administration employees, the citizens mainly complain of superficiality and arrogance resulting from bad habits and inherited mentality which is no reason not to do the job funded by public resources, stressed Deputy Speaker Comic. The National Assembly passed a series of laws creating the preconditions to reduce abuse and the level of prejudice in public administration and would like to spread the message the “if I am in power, that does not mean I can do as I please”. In addition to passing In the session, among other things, the PACE will discuss the effects of the Arab Spring, and the agenda will also contain the request for an urgent debate on the current situation in Syria.

The Foreign Minister of Morocco will address the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and a debate on “Equality between women and men: a condition for the success of the Arab Spring” is also expected to take place.

The Parliamentary Assembly will also consider the report on who is responsible for the lives lost in the Mediterranean Sea, the result of a nine-month inquiry into the deaths of 63 people fleeing the conflict in Libya. The parliamentarians will be addressed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina and British Minister for Europe who will present the results of the work done by the Council of Europe during the chairmanship of the United Kingdom.

The National Assembly delegation will comprise: Prof. Dr Dragoljub Micunovic, Head of the delegation, Natasa Vukovic, Dragan Todorovic, Milos Jevtic and Zeljko Ivanji.