An international conference titled “How to Speed up Serbia’s Integration into the European Union” was held on 5 May, at the House of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, organised by the Faculty of Economics, Finance and Administration (FEFA) from Belgrade and the Institute for European Affairs (INEA) to commemorate European Week. The possibilities of speeding up Serbia’s integration into the European Union, strengthening administrative capacities and overcoming the political barriers to integration into the EU were discussed at the conference.

The participants of the conference were greeted by the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Dr Oliver Dulic, who went on to speak of the strengthening of the Parliament’s administrative capacities for a speedier accession to the EU. According to his estimate, in order to speed up the process of European integrations it is necessary to achieve a consensus of all political parties on these issues and build strong democratic institutions. He expressed his expectations that pro-European powers will win the upcoming parliamentary elections and cooperate with opposition parties to continue the already begun process of bringing Serbia closer to the European Union.

Speaker Dulic pointed out the Parliament’s important role in this process, stressing that a new Proposal of National Assembly’s rules of procedure has been drafted which should enable it to work more efficiently and pass laws essential for Serbia’s expedient European integrations. However, the Parliament must at the same time be one of the main promoters of European values so that the citizens can recognize and accept them as their own priorities.

Guests from Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria shared the experiences of their accession to the European Union with the participants of the conference.