At the sitting held on 2 November, the European Integrations Committee members discussed the Information on the European Commission’s 2009 Progress Report on Serbia and the Report on the Implementation of the National Programme of Integration of the Republic of Serbia into the European Union (NPI) for the period July-September 2009, elaborated by the Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, Bozidar Djelic.

Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic stressed that this report was the best and most favourable the European Commission has given Serbia to date. He believes that it provides the appropriate administrative grounds to unfreeze the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, as well as achieve candidate status the moment the political conditions for it are met. Djelic emphasised that out of 24 marks total the European Commission had given 22 positive ones. He also said that the National Assembly was greatly commended for passing numerous laws and other documents and, on the behalf of the Government, expressed hope that the Parliament would continue its efficient legislative activity. In addition to the volume of passed laws, their implementation and the quality of the regulations should receive more attention in the upcoming period, Djelic said and concluded that the Report would also effect a recommendation to commence the implementation of the Trade Agreement as soon as possible.

Director of the European Integration Office Milica Delevic stressed that a large step has been taken on the right road, but that there is still a lot of work to do. She agreed with the estimate that the implementation of these laws, as well as testing the harmonisation of the regulations with EU legislation, require more attention.

In the discussion, some of the Committee members asked what made this the best report and deemed that the positive marks resulted solely from the National Assembly’s legislative activity. However, apart from the number of passed laws, there is a conspicuous lack of public debate as well as adoption under urgent procedure, and the implementation of said laws is a great obstacle, it was said in the discussion.

Elaborating the Report on the Implementation of the National Integration Programme, Bozidar Djelic said that, thanks to the Government and National Assembly’s efforts, Serbia has made significant progress in approaching the European Union. This is evidenced in the fact that the degree of fulfillment of the NPI goals had risen to 81% by September 2009.

The sitting was chaired by Laszlo Varga.