Chairpersons of the Committee on International Relations and Emigrants and the Committee on European Integration, Mr Andrija Nikolić and Adrijan Vuksanović, attended a two-day International Parliamentary Conference, held at the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. The conference brought together representatives of executive and parliamentary structures of the member states of the European Union and countries of the region, and the discussion included issues on the European security: relations between EU, NATO and Russian Federation, enlargement and decentralisation policy of EU, as well as the relation between fiscal and monetary policy.

In their welcoming speeches, Ms Maja Gojković, Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, and Mr Nenad Čanak, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on European Integration, pointed out that the goal of the Conference was to show the unequivocal commitment to European integration, and to strengthen the credibility of the European perspective, which would make the European Union's idea strong and stable.

The chairpersons of the two committees met during the conference with Mr Gunter Krichbaum, Chairman of the Committee on European Affairs of the German Bundestag, and they discussed the progress of Montenegro on its path to the EU. Mr Krichbaum told Montenegrin colleagues that he percieved Montenegro as a future EU member with 30 chapters opened, and that the focus would in the period ahead be on the closing of chapters. Mr Nikolić and Mr Vuksanović also discussed with Mr Krichbaum the deepening of the cooperation between the Bundestag and the Parliament of Montenegro. It was agreed that the Chairpersons of Committees on International Relations and Emigrants and the Committee on European Integration of the Parliament of Montenegro, should visit the German Bundestag by the end of the year.

In the past two days, the specific modalities of cooperation between the institutions of the European Union and aspirant countries were discussed, as well as neighboring countries, in order to respond to the current challenges. In this regard, parliamentarians stressed the need to intensify dialogue in order to identify obstacles, and to maintain the European idea with an open exchange of views, to be courageous in fulfiling commitments and reforms and to show solidarity in overcoming common challenges.