The Secretary of the National Assembly Veljko Odalovic presented to the public the work and activities of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia in 2009.

At the press conference held on Thursday, 28 January, at the National Assembly House, he pointed out that during the 163 working days of the previous year the National Assembly held 29 sittings debating 328 items on the agenda. 13 of the sittings were held in regular session and 10 in extraordinary session, there were also 2 special sessions and 4 days to respond to parliamentary questions on a particular topic. Within this period, 11,923 amendments were submitted to the bills. The deputies posed 225 parliamentary questions and requested 461 explanations, out of which 188 parliamentary questions and 279 explanations were responded to.

In 2009, the National Assembly Committees held 380 sittings, 16 of which had been held outside of the National Assembly seat. At the Committee sittings, the deputies debated 519 bills and 16,929 amendments. The Committees also submitted 208 amendments of their own to the bills and passed 293 general documents and document proposals. It this period, the Committees created 5 sub-committees and 10 task groups. As part of the Committees’ control role, the deputies considered 170 reports and pieces of information submitted by the ministries and other state bodies. In addition, 5 roundtables were held in the function of public hearings. Over 1,600 proposals and petitions submitted by citizens and various associations were considered and forwarded to the competent bodies to be resolved.

In the previous year, the National Assembly enjoyed very active international cooperation both within parliamentary institutions in which it has standing delegations, and within bilateral cooperation. The Framework Agreement on Parliamentary Cooperation between the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal and the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and the Parliamentary Cooperation Agreement between the Russian State Duma and the Assembly of the Republic of Serbia were also signed.

The National Assembly was visited by over 68 parliamentary and other delegations and over 30 statesmen. Over 50 seminars, congresses, roundtables, celebrations, ceremonial sittings, promotions and other gatherings were held at the National Assembly.

In 2009, the National Assembly received 116 requests for access to information of public importance. Most of the requests had been sent by the media (53), non-governmental organisations and civic associations (27), citizens (29), state and other bodies (3) and others (4). The National Assembly responded to all the requests.

The National Assembly Secretary added that the 2009 financial report would be completed by March of this year.