Brnabic meets with Finnish parliament speaker

BELGRADE - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic met with Finnish Parliament Speaker Jussi Halla-aho in Belgrade on Tuesday evening to discuss EU integration, as well as lithium, with Finland to become the first country in Europe to mine and process its own lithium.

"Finland is one of the world's leading countries when it comes to the level of environmental protection, so I asked that we look at how the two areas - mining and environmental protection - overlap," Brnabic said at a press conference with Halla-aho after the meeting.

Welcoming her Finnish counterpart, Brnabic noted that, this year, the two countries marked the 95th anniversary of their diplomatic relations, which she said made Halla-aho's visit to Belgrade all the more important.

"My ambition and one of my work priorities is for the current parliament to be much stronger and make a step forward in terms of parliamentary diplomacy and help the entire country, President Aleksandar Vucic and the government in our European integration," Brnabic said.

She said she had asked Finland to provide technical and advisory assistance to Serbia on the EU path so that it could open Cluster 3 in the accession talks and continue reforms.

Halla-aho said Finland-Serbia relations were excellent and that he believed the two countries shared many values and ambitions.

He added that he believed there was room to strengthen bilateral relations in many areas, especially in the economy.

Halla-aho said his country fully supported Serbia's EU path and that the Western Balkans belonged in the EU.

He said the enlargement process was merit-based and that fundamental reforms and rule of law were at the core of the EU accession process.

Halla-aho said he had invited Brnabic to visit Finland with a parliamentary delegation to continue the exceptional dialogue.

He added that they had exchanged views on the regional situation in the Western Balkans as well as the security situation in Europe resulting from Russia's aggression on Ukraine.