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courage is contagious

Viewing cable 07BELGRADE881, AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH NEW PARLIAMENT SPEAKER

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
07BELGRADE881 2007-06-21 09:10 2011-08-26 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Belgrade
VZCZCXRO1521
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBW #0881 1720910
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 210910Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1040
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS BELGRADE 000881 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM SR
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH NEW PARLIAMENT SPEAKER 
 
 
1.  (sbu)  The Ambassador's June 4 courtesy call on new (and quite 
impressive and articulate) parliament speaker Oliver Dulic focused 
primarily on parliamentary institutional reform.  The Ambassador 
congratulated Dulic on his appointment, and pledged support for his 
efforts to make the parliament more of a player in policy setting and 
to in turn strengthen this key institution of democracy. 
 
2.  (sbu)  Dulic noted that his most immediate priorities would be 
passing legislation to reform procedural rules in the parliament to 
eliminate - or at least discourage - unprofessional behavior and 
baseless obstructionism from, primarily, the Radical Party.  In 
addition, Dulic said he would be looking for creative ways, including 
using development assistance, to create for the parliament a 
sustainable corps of professional committee staff that could 
eventually provide not just expertise but also continuity and 
institutional memory for incoming MP's. 
 
3.  (sbu)  Dulic admitted that allocating committee chairs to the 
Radicals was a distasteful practice, but said it was probably 
unavoidable due to a) the precedent of Radicals chairing committees 
in previous parliaments owing to their plurality in the body, and b) 
the likelihood that they would completely gridlock the work of the 
committees if they were not given a share of leadership positions. 
He noted as well that the SRS had duly and democratically elected 
MP's, and excluding them from the legislative process would do more 
harm to democracy in Serbia than dealing with their antics. 
 
POLT