The Chairman of the National Assembly submitted a six-monthly report on the activities of the Assembly and the Office of the Chairman (4 March – 4 September 2004).

THE ASSEMBLY – NATION – LAW – ORDER

NATION-Agreement on national priorities

• The National Assembly adopted the Resolution on Kosovo and Metohia by a two-thirds majority on 26 March, followed by the Plan for a Political Solution to the Situation in Kosovo and Metohia, drafted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and adopted on 29 April;
• The decision on changing the Constitution in a constitutional manner – the Decision on Initiating Procedure for the Adoption of the New Constitution of Serbia – was passed on 30 March;
• The Act Modifying the Act on the Election of the President of the Republic of Serbia was passed on 25 February;
• The Recommendation on the Use of the Coat-of-arms, Flag and Anthem of the Republic of Serbia was passed unanimously on 17 August.

LAW-Legislative activities

• Since the inaugural session of the new Assembly convocation, 13 regular and 11 extraordinary sittings saw the passage on 50 Acts and 45 other items of legislation (table attached). In comparison, total of 47 items were passed in 2003, while 46 were passed in 2002;
• The preparation of Assembly sessions and other preliminary activities
involved a total of 289 committee sessions, four sub-committee sessions and 13 sessions of the Board of Inquiry. The Privatisation Committee was especially efficient, passing all its decisions unanimously;
• In this convocation, all parties take part in committee sessions, while almost half of the committees are chaired by members of opposition parties, which was one of the pre-election pledges of the present Chairman of the National Assembly.

ORDER-Respect for tradition

• Celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the Ostruznica National Assembly;
• Promotion of the monograph Two hundred years of the Serbian Assembly;
• Celebration of the 50th anniversary of the National Assembly’s present building;
• Promotion of the Deputies’ Handbook;
• Ceremonial raising of the State Flag on the Assembly’s flagpole;
• Preparation of an exhibition of paintings from the National Assembly collection, to be presented as part of European Heritage Days organised by the City of Belgrade on 12 and 13 September.

THE OFFICE OF THE CHAIRMAN-EQUALITY – OPENNESS – MOBILITY-EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW FOR EVERYONE

Free and fair elections

• Respect for legal deadlines in the preparation and calling of presidential elections, along with the political neutrality of the Assembly Chairman; the election of the president and national minority representatives made possible with the abolishing of the minimum voter turnout rule;
• Respect for legal deadlines in the calling of local elections; Assembly Chairman’s public warning on the inadequacies of the Local Self-government Act and refusal to modify the Act on the eve of the elections.

Protection of minority and property rights and contribution to the creation of a democratic environment

• National minorities – co-operation with national councils and work on solving problems involving their financing; mediation in establishing direct communication with appropriate ministries. The Chairman of the National Assembly directed an official request to the Minister of the Interior, the Republic Public Prosecutor, heads of districts, local police officials and municipal assembly chairpersons in Vojvodina from areas where incidents were reported from March to June, asking them to report the exact circumstances, measures taken and strategies for preventing possible further incidents. In co-operation with the appropriate ministries and the National Assembly’s Committee on Inter-ethnic Relations, the Chairman submitted a public report. A clear expression of support for the equality of national minorities was the Chairman’s visit to the “Duzijanca” celebration in Subotica, the first time a high official of the Republic of Serbia took part in that event;
• Property rights – as Acting President of the Republic of Serbia, the Assembly Chairman issued a recommendation to chairpersons of municipal and city assemblies with the aim of using provisions of existing legislation to enable previous owners of nationalised real estate to use it. Actions of appropriate bodies taken on the basis of the recommendation resulted in the solving of 150 cases. This is the first time that a high state official has signed a document proclaiming the restitution of private property a matter beyond dispute.

THE HOUSE OF ALL THE PEOPLE-Open doors

• The general public now has the opportunity to become acquainted with the activities of the Assembly and the Office of the Chairman every last Saturday in a month. The Open Door Day was inaugurated on 31 May, with the visit of a delegation of the best pupils of three Belgrade secondary schools. The first members of the public were received on 3 July. Three open days have been held so far, with the Assembly Chairman and deputies playing hosts to over 360 members of the public;

Date Number of visitors
31 May 30
3 July 90
31 July 120
28 August 120

• An open office – the Office of the Chairman replies to all politely worded letters from members of the public. A total of 308 cases were solved, either immediately or by re-directing them to the appropriate bodies (a table of submissions processed is attached). The Chairman met more than one hundred members of the public and representatives of various organisations and associations in order to help solve their problems;
• Support for youth – the Chairman of the National Assembly had meetings with delegations of numerous schools from Serbia, as well as with students receiving Konrad Adenauer Foundation and National Democratic Institute scholarships, young leaders from the Youth Education for Business and Entrepreneurship programme, and many others. Special attention was given to primary and secondary school students, with the introduction of organised school visits to the National Assembly from October this year;
• Support for the media – a programme is currently under way, in co-operation with OSCE, to create a special newsroom where journalists covering Assembly activities would have access to four computers, telephones, a fax machine and a television.

AN OFFICE ON THE MOVE

•As part of the campaign on acquainting local assemblies and members of the public with the activities of the National Assembly, visits were organised to Novi Sad, Backi Petrovac, Subotica, Kikinda, Nis, Kraljevo, Krusevac, Barajevo, Jagodina, Paracin, Cuprija, Sombor, Becej, Zrenjanin, Pancevo, Obrenovac, Lajkovac, Valjevo, Pozarevac…
• The Assembly Chairman (and Acting President of Serbia) visited the Gracanica monastery in April, at the invitation of Serbian Orthodox Bishop Artemije. This was the first visit of a Serbian head of state to Kosovo since 1999;
• Attendance at and support to important cultural events: the Palic International Film Festival, the Nis Film Festival, the Ljubicevo Horsemanship Festival, the celebration of the 120th anniversary of the National Bank of Serbia, the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cer, the liturgy for the completion of the construction of St. Sava’s Temple, Sterija’s Theatrical Festival, the Cartoon Exhibition, Subotica Day…

INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES

• Co-operation was established with parliaments of Hungary, Italy and Russia. A number of initiatives were created, focusing on regional parliamentary co-operation;
• Intensive co-operation with international organisations resulted in significant support to assembly activities by OSCE, USAID, Canada’s Parliamentary Centre, and many other agencies;
• Over 50 meetings were held with ambassadors, heads of state and government, and parliamentary speakers and representatives.

CEREMONIES AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS

Over the past six months, the National Assembly played host to a large number of official visits, events and ceremonies. The most important of these were:

• The president-elect of Serbia took the oath of office;
• At the suggestion of the Chairman of the National Assembly, the President of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro decorated Christian Thimonier, counsellor at the Embassy of France. The decoration was conferred at the National Assembly on 23 July;
• Judges and public prosecutors took the oath of office;
• Presentation of prizes for best essay – the Assembly Chairman was a member of the jury that selected the best essays and awarded prizes for essays on the topic “If I were Prime Minister, I would…”, as part of a competition organised by OSCE for Serbia’s secondary school students;
• Co-operation with the National Library of Serbia – the head of the Library, Sreten Ugricic, presented all deputies of the Serbian Assembly with free membership cards. At the same time, the National Library presented a 16-volume bibliography to the Assembly Library;
• Support to a number of important conferences and roundtables.