A coordination meeting of the OSCE Mission to BiH with the leadership of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska

The coordination meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the leadership of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska headed by the President of the National Assembly Nedeljko Čubrilović, on further cooperation and implementation of joint parliamentary support projects was held today in Banja Luka.

The meeting was attended by the head of the OSCE Mission to BiH Bruce Berton, Parliament's Deputies Zeljka Stojičić and Milan Petković, Parliament's Secretary General Nebojša Zgonjanin and representatives of the National Assembly Service.

Addressing the participants in the coordination meeting, President Čubrilović said that the OSCE contributed to the understanding of the processes in which the Republic of Srpska and BiH are taking.

"We had very successful cooperation, the OSCE supported numerous projects supporting the work of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska and expect that we will continue to work and cooperate in this direction," said President Čubrilović.

President Čubrilović stressed that the OSCE is one of the few international organizations that is acceptable to all structures of the authorities in BiH, and so to the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska, and that this cooperation is very successful for mutual satisfaction.

Čubrilović said that the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska modernized and technologically improved its work, adopted certain standards, and its leadership had the opportunity to visit parliaments in the EU and cooperate with them.

"All this would not be that there was no engagement of the OSCE Mission to BiH and dedicated work of elected officials and permanent staff of professionals in the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska," said Čubrilović.

He expressed the expectation that the very successful cooperation between the National Assembly and the OSCE will continue in the future, adding that the head of the OSCE Mission to BiH Bruce Berton made a major contribution to this, as well as his predecessors.

Berton said that the meeting represented a new approach of the OSCE Mission to BiH in connection with the cooperation with the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska, which was based on the involvement of the National Assembly leadership in joint planning of the future support.

"In this way, we will ensure that we will work together where the assistance is most needed in order to improve the internal capacity of the National Assembly, as well as to initiate key laws that will contribute to the necessary reforms," Berton said.

He said that the conclusions from this meeting will be taken into account in the joint agreement on future projects and plans to increase legislative efficiency in the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska.