Serbia, like Russia, will change the Constitution
The National Assembly of Serbia approved the government's proposal to initiate a procedure for amending the Constitution in the part that concerns the judicial system.
This was reported by Politika, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
207 deputies of the National Assembly voted for the process of changing the Constitution of Serbia, three voted against, two abstained, and one deputy was not present at the meeting. Now the parliamentary Committee on Constitutional and Legislative Issues must prepare a proposal to amend the Basic Law, which will be submitted to the People's Assembly, and if deputies support it, a referendum will be held in which the country's citizens will have the final say.
Justifying the government's proposal to begin the process of amending the Constitution, Prime Minister Anna Brnabic emphasized that the changes concern justice, that they are necessary on the path of European integration, but must be made, first of all, for the sake of citizens, whose quality of life will improve as a result of the adopted amendments, because that “justice should not be slow, but achievable and quick.”
The head of government recalled that the public debate on constitutional changes continued for eighteen months, noting that this indicates how much the government cares about achieving the broadest possible social consensus on such an important issue.
In response to the Prime Minister's words, the leader of the Albanian-Bosniak faction, Albanian Shaip Kamberi, said that the Constitution of Serbia needs not partial, but fundamental changes, opposing the fact that it states that this country is the state of the Serbian people. According to Kamberi, this is unacceptable, since 20% of the Serbian population are national minorities. As a positive example, he cited the “Constitution of Kosovo,” which states that “Kosovo is a state of its citizens.”
“It is wrong to refer to the Constitution of the self-proclaimed Kosovo in the Serbian parliament, being a member of the parliament of the country of which Kosovo and Metohija is part,” Brnabic countered this attack. “This is our province, and you must respect that.” There is no “Kosovo Constitution” for this space and they won independence without asking any of their citizens. It’s as if one day I woke up and decided that my Karaburma (Belgrade district – ed.) is independent, and then I accepted the Karaburma Constitution without asking anyone anything. The Kosovo Constitution operates similarly to the Karaburma Constitution.”
The head of the Serbian government also noted that she does not want the so-called Kosovo to be a role model for anything, recalling the crimes committed against the Serbs for which no one was held accountable.
The changes the EU is pushing for are expected to concern the way judges are elected. The Supreme Judicial Council, instead of the 11 members currently elected by parliament, will consist of ten, and only half of them will be chosen by deputies, and the other half by judges. The State Council of Prosecutors will become the Supreme Council of Prosecutors, five of them will also be elected by the People's Assembly, and another five will be elected by prosecutors.
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