At the beginning of the meeting, Laszlo Varga stressed that Serbia was in a crucial year of European integration and expected to gain candidacy status and a date for the beginning of negotiations by the end of the year. He emphasised the importance of cooperation with the countries in the region and the precious experiences primarily of the states further along in the European integration process, which can help speed up the process in Serbia. Varga opined that our experience in the harmonisation of regulations with European legislation can help the Republic of Srpska complete the same work successfully. Speaking of further activities, he stressed that the Committee will focus on controlling the executive government, parliamentary diplomacy and communication with the public in the upcoming period.

Branislav Borenovic said that this was his Committee’s first official visit to a parliament of one of the countries in the Western Balkan region. He deemed it a good opportunity to share experiences in the field of European integration, particularly in the area of harmonising domestic and EU legislation. Serbia is further along in the process and is successfully completing said harmonisation, so its experiences can be help speed up the process in the Republic of Srpska. Borenovic conveyed the wish that Serbia may gain candidacy status and invited the members of the European Integrations Committee to visit the Republic of Srpska.

European Integrations Committee members Gordana Comic and Momir Markovic and Slobodan Popovic, Snjezana Novakovic-Bursac and Radmila Kocic, members of the Committee on European Integration and Regional Cooperation, took part in the meeting.