At the sitting held on 25 February, the European Integrations Committee members adopted the Government’s Report on the implementation of the National Programme for the Integration of the Republic of Serbia into the European Union for the period July-December 2008. The Committee sitting was chaired by Laslo Varga.

Elaborating the Report, Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic stated that the programme aims to harmonise Serbia’s domestic legislation with the European Union legislation by 2012. He said that it was planned that 64 laws from the “European agenda” be passed in the second half of 2008, but that the Government formulated 49, and the National Assembly passed only 17 of the laws. Most of the laws were prepared by the ministries of finance, justice, agriculture and environment.

As part of the harmonisation of domestic legislation with EU legislation, the National Assembly should pass at least 155 laws this year. That is why it is highly important that the National Assembly do its job efficiently, which the modifications to the Rules of Procedure should make possible, the Deputy Prime Minister said.

According to him, the Government has passed a packet of laws necessary to fulfill the conditions for Serbia’s placement on the white Schengen list, which will be included in the agenda for the Parliament’s first regular session.

Deputy Prime Minister Djelic also pointed out that the harmonisation of domestic with EU legislation is one of the conditions for strengthening the competitiveness of Serbia’s economy. He announced that the Government will submit three-monthly reports to the National Assembly on the implementation of the programme.

Certain Committee members did not agree with the estimate that the National Assembly has been less efficient than the Government and that it is slowing down Serbia’s approach to the EU. They pointed out that the Government is responsible for the fact that a small number of European laws have been passed, primarily because they are not submitted on time thus blocking the Parliament’s work.

Some also believe that the responsibility for the slow adoption of laws lies both on the Government and the National Assembly, and that it is necessary that the European laws be passed in an accelerated procedure and that the deputies be more constructive in their work. It was also proposed that the Government regularly submits to the National Assembly a list of laws it proposes have priority of placement onto the agendas for sessions.