As part of its co-operation with the OSCE Mission in Serbia, the National Assembly again organised the annual awards ceremony for winners of the OSCE’s traditional essay writing contest.

At the start of the ceremony the participants in the contest and other guests were welcomed by the Chairman of the National Assembly, Predrag Markovic, and the head of the OSCE Mission, Hans Ole Urstad. In his speech, Mr Markovic underlined that the European Union was a collection of diversities, and that Serbia needed young and clever people, who could constantly compare their realistic needs, learn, and apply general standards, so they could one day take charge of the institutions being established today. He added that Serbia today was neither moving nor standing still, but that it had rather just made the first step into the process of changing and establishing national institutions – for which it needed the conscience and capabilities of young people to continue on that path.

This year, the OSCE Mission and the European Movement in Serbia had organised an essay writing contest, with two possible topics: ‘On guilt, truth, and change in Serbia’, and ‘Dialogue between religious communities as a path to reconciliation’. An expert panel awarded prizes to 12 essays, out of the 35 shortlisted ones; two were finally selected as the best – those written by Srdjan Milosevic and Dunja Poleti. The winners were presented with their prizes by Hannelore Valier, head of the Democratisation Department at the OSCE Mission.