Parliament Official: Media, Election Legislation Possible by Mid-June

REM - Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (Beta/Milos Miskov)

Elvira Kovac, chairwoman of the Serbian parliament's Committee on European Union Integration, said on May 14 that a new set of media and election laws and the election of the new Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Council, which she described as the "condition above all conditions" for opening Cluster 3 in Serbia's bid to join the EU, may be adopted by mid-June.

Kovac told the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation that the legislation -- or those pieces of it on which there are opinions by the European Commission, should appear before the Serbian government in the days to come. "After the government signs off on them, so we aren't criticized again -- so it's not urgent procedure, 15 days have to pass, for them to sit a while in parliament, which means that in the first half of June -- I don't know the exact date yet -- there would be the session of the Serbian parliament to debate and finally pass these laws," she said.

On the topic of electing members to the Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Council, she said the procedure had been launched on May 8 and that there was a 15-day deadline for applications. "And after a few sessions of the Committee on Culture and Information, I think it's realistic that it will be done by the end of May. Consequently, from the beginning to the first half of June, we could get all that done," Kovac added.