Brnabic meets with Italy's Tremonti

BELGRADE - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic met with Giulio Tremonti, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Italian House of Representatives, to discuss further advancement of parliamentary cooperation as an important segment of bilateral relations.

Brnabic noted that Serbia highly appreciated Italy's support on its path to full EU membership and believed that the soonest possible EU integration of the Western Balkans could contribute to the economic prospects and stability of the region and Europe as a whole, an official statement said.

She said the unveiling of the Western Balkans Growth Plan, under which the EU will set aside funds to help the region's reform agenda, was very significant and could inject new energy in the EU integration process in the region.

Tremonti noted that EU enlargement was important not only for Serbia but for the bloc as well for the sake of overcoming many other barriers.

He said Italy understood relationships in the Balkans and that Serbia-Italy bilateral relations were developed in all areas and on the level of strategic partnership.

Brnabic said bilateral economic cooperation was good and that the volume of trade was high, and noted that services trade was becoming more and more intensive and that the number of Italian investments in Serbia was growing.