Aiming to improve Committee activities, the OSCE Mission to Serbia organised a roundtable in Novi Sad on 15 and 16 September 2006 devoted to ‘Strengthening the role of Committee secretaries’. Over the roundtable’s two days, National Assembly employees, Committee secretaries, and Committee advisors had the opportunity to learn about experiences of their colleagues from the German and Slovenian parliaments.

In his opening address, the National Assembly Secretary, Marko Danilovic, told the attendees that the roundtable came at the right time, organised as it was after the passage of the Decision on Assuming Powers of the Republic of Serbia and the adoption of the new National Assembly job classification document. Mr Danilovic thanked OSCE officials for organising the roundtable, and expressed his hope that all attendees would use the opportunity to get to know each other better and establish closer ties, as they were all engaged in the same or similar activities.

The secretary of the Slovenian Parliamentary Committee on the Economy, Jerneja Bergoc, and the Deputy Secretary General of the German Bundestag, Friedhelm Meier, spoke about the role of Committee secretaries in the legislative process and Committee activities in supervising the executive power. The speakers presented Slovenian and German parliamentary procedure, spoke about the roles of secretaries in advising Committee chairpersons and members on laws and other regulations, as well as communicating with executive bodies, interest groups, and experts.

Bergoc and Meier spoke of their experiences relating to the roles of secretaries in planning Committee activities and co-operating with Ministry officials. Lectures were also held on the roles of advisors and assistants on Committees, internal Committee organisation, and co-operation with other parliamentary staff.

Discussion sessions were held after each lecture; Committee secretaries and advisors took active part in these. The sessions were moderated by the Head of Working Body Affairs at the National Assembly, Mirjana Radakovic, and Senior Advisor with the Parliamentary Support Programme at the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Axel Jaenicke.

In addition to National Assembly Support Service staff, the roundtable was also attended by officials of the Parliamentary Co-operation Section of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia.