The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will open the first part of the 2012 Ordinary Session in Strasbourg on January 23, as part of which the report entitled “The honoring of obligations and commitments by Serbia” will be discussed on January 25.

Head of Serbia's standing delegation to the PACE Dragoljub Micunovic told Tanjug that apart from several remarks, the report is rather positive.

“The report is rather positive, it contains two or three remarks, and we expect that after this debate, we will enter a new phase - the post-monitoring situation, when there is no strict monitoring as to whether the country observes all the values of the Council of Europe,” Micunovic said.

The Committee on the Honoring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe noted that Serbia had met a great number of obligations and achieved considerable progress, notably in the field of regional cooperation and cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, while continuing the dialogue with Pristina by peaceful and diplomatic means, the PACE published on its website.

The Monitoring Committee considers that the Serbian authorities need to make further progress to adopt the necessary legislation and ensure its effective implementation in four essential areas- the setting-up of an independent and efficient justice system, independent media, the fight against corruption and the fight against discrimination.

The first part of the 2012 Ordinary Session will last until January 27.

The Serbian parliament's delegation to the PACE is comprised of 14 members, and Serbia has been a fully fledged member of the organisation since 2003.