First off, Becic stressed that the Serbian Government and the majority of MPs are strongly in favour of EU accession, as evidenced by the active approach to the talks, coordination and cooperation with the partners. He stressed that Serbia aims to build a modern and stable state and secure a better life for its citizens, not just join the EU. At the same time, Becic also informed the guests that the third revision of the National Programme for the Adoption of the EU Acquis was adopted, proposing to have the national legislation fully harmonized with the acquis by 2021.

Becic added that the Committee he heads is aware of the importance of negotiation chapters 23 and 24 and is fully committed to work on the implementation of the activities contained in the action plans for said chapters, but also hoped that the rest of the technically ready chapters would soon be opened. Becic went on to inform the guests about the Security Services Control Committee’s activities in the previous period, its supervisory visits to the security services’ centres and the positive results observed in the course of these visits, legality of the centres’ actions and the overall situation in Serbia’s security sector.

The Head of the EU Delegation’s Political Section Noora Hayrinen thanked the Chairman for the information stressing that the constructive talk they had would greatly contribute to the drafting of the 2017 Report. She added that the meetings with the representatives of various sectors from many different institutions would be very helpful to better present the results Serbia had achieved in the Progress Report.