Today’s meeting, held in Bar, was marked by evaluation of Pre-accession Assistance Programme of the European Parliament to the parliaments of the Western Balkans and Turkey for 2014, but also by exchange of opinions on the priority tasks and topics for the following year.

Director of Directorate for Democracy Support at Directorate-General for External Policies of the Union Mr Christian Hubert referred to results of this year’s elections for the European Parliament, and pointed out that a new composition of rapporteurs had been established for the countries in the region. Rapporteur for Montenegro is Charles Tannock, while the Head of Delegation of the European Parliament in the Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee is Anneliese Dodds. On that occasion he said that in the following period the focus would be placed on reforms and democratisation of institutions, but also that in that period, as announced, there would be no new enlargement, and that the assistance programme to the national parliaments was especially significant.

The participants delivered their own proposals for organising seminars which would result in deeper analysis of the issues on the agenda, both for MPs and state employees of the national parliaments. They welcomed organising of seminars with a principle of rotating host countries, and the study visits and internship programmes were pointed out as the most effective manner of providing support. Among suggestions for topics that would be subject of debates within the programme for the following year, the most prominent were the issues from the field of judiciary, agriculture and environmental protection.

In addition to representatives of the European Parliament, participants in the meeting were correspondents of national parliaments of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, as well as a representative of Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Cooperation in South East Europe (RSPC SEE).