At the sitting held on 9 April, the Industry Committee members discussed in principle the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Chambers of Commerce, submitted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

The representative of the submitters, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development Nebojsa Ciric presented the Bill stressing that the submitters’ intention was to create competitive conditions in the chamber system and modernise the system itself. The Bill enables commercial associations to unite into separate chambers (of at least 50 members), a chamber register is founded, obligatory membership abolished, and control and payment of membership fees defined. The submitter of the Bill envisaged that the it be applied from 2013 onward so as to allow the existing chambers sufficient time to reorganise and prepare for the new chamber system in Serbia.

The representatives of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce had objections to the proposed legislation, stating that the principle of inclusion of all interested parties, particularly chambers and commercial associations, had not been observed in the drafting of the Bill. There was no public debate, nor had a valid comparative analysis been done of chamber systems in the European Union.

In the debate, the opposition Committee members criticised the Bill stressing that it would destroy 150-year-long tradition and stating that the Bill should be withdrawn from procedure and put to wide public debate.

Following the discussion the Committee accepted the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Chambers of Commerce in principle, by a majority of votes.

The sitting was chaired by Milorad Buha, Committee Chairman.