National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia

  The National Assembly is the supreme representative body and the holder of constitutional and legislative power in the Republic of Serbia, entrusted with representative, legislative, electoral and oversight functions. The National Assembly consists of 250 members, who are elected on direct elections by secret ballot. Equality and representation of different genders and members of national minorities is guaranteed by the Law. In principle, the National Assembly adopts decisions by majority vote of deputies in sessions where the majority of deputies are present. The legal framework and scope of competencies regulating the functioning of the National Assembly is given by the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, Law on the National Assembly, Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, and Decision on internal organization and work of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. The Law on the National Assembly establishes parliamentary budgetary autonomy through a separate budget and also provides for procedural innovations, in particular the establishment of a parliamentary collegium, which formalizes the earlier ad hoc practice of consultations between the Speaker and the heads of political groups in the parliament. The Rules of procedure consolidate the existing instruments of control over the executive and further clarify the legislative procedures. The National Assembly has continued with regular hearings of the government.

Parliamentary committees 

The present organizational structure of the National Assembly foresees 20 Parliamentary Committees, generally reflecting the corpus of executive sectors of the Government. Each Parliamentary Committee is composed by a different number of MPs and is technically supported by the competent staff of the National Assembly Service. According to the Article 44 of the Rules of Procedure committees shall: consider Bills and proposals of other acts, monitor the implementation of Government policy, monitor the execution of laws and other acts, consider work plans and reports of competent Ministries and other public authorities, organizations and bodies; consider the National Assembly’s Annual Work Plan; issue assents to the acts of state authorities, organizations and bodies which shall, in accordance with the Law, submit them to the National Assembly for its approval; launch initiatives and submit proposals to the National Assembly, pursuant to the Law and these Rules of Procedure; consider initiatives, petitions, complaints and proposals which are within its scope of work;  consider other issues within the scope of work of the National Assembly. Committees shall engage in mutual co-operation, and may hold joint sittings to discuss issues of common interest.

European Affairs

The European Integration Committee was established on May 30, 2003 when the changes were introduced to the National Assembly Rules of Procedure. The European Integration Committee: Reviews bills and other general acts from the standpoint of their harmonization with the regulations of the European Union and the Council of Europe, and reports about this to the National Assembly; Reviews plans, programs, reports, and information about the proceedings relating to the stabilization and accession to the European Union; monitors the realization of the accession strategy; proposes measures and initiatives for the acceleration of realization of the accession strategy within the scope of competences of the National Assembly; proposes measures for reaching of a general national agreement about Serbia’s membership in European institutions; works on developing cooperation with Parliamentary Committees of other countries and Parliamentary institutions of the European Union; provides opinions about the validity of the reduction of time allowed for discussion, that is, about emergency proceedings.

 
The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Resolution on the Accession to the European Union on October 14, 2004. The Resolution contains guidelines for the functioning of legal and executive authorities in the Republic of Serbia with a view to meeting the Copenhagen criteria. The Resolution states: full agreement about joining the European Union, as the highest and undisputed political priority, as well as joining the Partnership for Peace, as an element of common security structure of European countries, readiness to work on meeting the political conditions for joining the European Union. The Resolution emphasizes the need to bring to justice all persons suspected of war crimes committed during the armed conflicts in the period from 1991 to 2000 on the territory of the former SFRY, full agreement about further development of good neighborly relations and all other aspects of regional cooperation and initiatives, the obligation of the National Assembly to give the priority to the process of legal harmonization with the European Union's acquis and the need to introduce special procedures in order to improve the efficiency of this process, analyze conditions for association set by the EU and provide a schedule of the necessary measures and activities.

By signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) back in 2008, Serbia is committed to a gradual harmonization of legislation with the acquis of the European Communities, as well as to its consistent application. In this regard, according to Article 72 of the SAA, in 2008 Serbia has adopted the National Program for Integration in the EU (NPI).

In February 2013, the Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted a new multiannual strategic document – National Programme for the Adoption of the acquis (NPAA), covering the period 2013-2016. NPAA has 3 chapters (political criteria, economic criteria and ability for adoption the obligations resulting from EU membership). Chapter 3 of the NPAA has 33 sub-chapters, covering all fields of EU legislation. Moreover, NPAA has three annexes: Annex A (Plan for the harmonization of the national legislation for the year 2013), Annex B (Planned budgetary resources) and Annex C (Preliminary list of EU legal act to be translated in 2013). The legislative part of the NPAA will be of great importance to the work plan of the National Assembly.

On 16 December 2013, the National Assembly adopted the Resolution on the Role of the National Assembly and Principles in the Negotiations on the Accession of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union.

By the Resolution the National Assembly confirms the strategic goal of the Republic of Serbia to become a full member of the European Union and actively contribute to the successful conduction and completion of the negotiations. The Resolution underlines the importance of cooperation between the National Assembly and the Government, in charge of leading and coordinating the negotiations on the accession to the European Union, so that all political, economic, legislative and institutional EU membership criteria could be fulfilled in the quickest possible time.

The adoption of the Resolution achieves a political and social consensus on the structure and dynamics of the negotiations on the accession of Serbia to the European Union. Parallel to the negotiations, Serbia continues to align the national legislation with the EU acquis and stimulate economic growth to achieve economic and social security and well-being of all the citizens.

The Resolution stresses that the National Assembly committees in charge of issues from the relevant negotiating positions join the process following the negotiations, while the European Integration Committee will play the central role in coordinating all the activities.
Prior to determining a negotiating position for each chapter, the Government submits its proposed negotiating position to the European Integration Committee which passes an opinion and/or adopts recommendations which are then taken into consideration by the Government when adopting the negotiating position of which the relevant National Assembly Committee is informed. The Resolution states that the Government shall submit to the National Assembly a report on the process of negotiations on the accession of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union twice a year, i.e. every six months when the Presidency of the Council of the European Union rotates, and the report shall be considered at the session of the National Assembly. The Resolution also stipulates that the Head of the Negotiating Team shall submit a report to the European Integration Committee every three months or more frequently. The Government shall also report to the European Integration Committee the results of the bilateral screening for each negotiating chapter.

Following the adoption of the Resolution, on June 2014, the European Integration Committee, adopted the Decision regulating the procedure for consideration of the proposed negotiating position. The Decision regulates in details, the procedure of handling the proposal of the negotiating position, when entering the parliamentary procedure.

The Decision also envisages close cooperation with civil society, professional public and other stakeholders, through the National Convention on the European Union, coordinated by the European Movement in Serbia. The National Convention brings together over 700 non-governmental organizations from the territory of Serbia, covering all areas that are subject to negotiations.

By adopting the Resolution and consequently the Decision, the National Assembly strengthens its control role in the negotiations and accession process and its readiness to ensure participation in all the stages of the negotiations on the accession of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union by cooperating with the civil society, experts and other stakeholders. At the same the public is kept informed, timely and continuously, on the course of the accession talks and the results achieved.

Download the Document on link  

http://www.parlament.rs/activities/european-integration/documents.2189.html

Annual progress reports:

http://www.mei.gov.rs/eng/documents/eu-documents/annual-progress-reports-of-the-european-commision-for-serbia