President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is in official visit to the Republic of Serbia from 6 to 8 March 2011. On the second day of his stay, President Çavuşoğlu visited the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

In the course of the visit he met with the heads and representatives of parliamentary groups. The meeting was attended by Head of the Parliamentary Group For European Serbia Nada Kolundzija, Head of the Socialist Party of Serbia – United Serbia Parliamentary Group Branko Ruzic, Head of the Democratic Party of Serbia – Vojislav Kostunica Parliamentary Group Milos Aligrudic, Head of the Liberal-Democratic Party Parliamentary Group Cedomir Jovanovic, Head of the Minorities’ Parliamentary Group Balint Pasztor, Head of the Party of United Pensioners of Serbia – PUPS Parliamentary Group Momo Colakovic, Deputy Head of the G17 PLUS Parliamentary Group Vlajko Senic and member of the New Serbia Parliamentary Group Zlata Djeric.

They discussed the tasks awaiting the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia in reaching the goal that Serbia has set for itself – gaining EU candidacy status.

The parliamentary group representatives opined that the abolition of monitoring would prove significant for Serbia as they believe that Serbia has reached the post-monitoring stage standards.

The parliamentary group heads voiced different views regarding the issues of deputies’ terms of office and electoral lists. Most of the parliamentary group heads agreed that the electoral rules should not be changed in the pre-election year. In addition, most parliamentary group representatives believe that the law can be amended so as to remove the “blank resignations” from the legal system and establish the order of awarding terms of office from the electoral list.

President Çavuşoğlu was grateful and pleased to be the guest of the National Assembly. In addition, he expressed full support for Serbia and the National Assembly in the European integration process, stressing that it would be useful to consult the Venetian Commission as well as other European institutions in the reform processes.