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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Current Constitution is hindering Serbia's decentralisation

Belgrade/Krusevac, 17 February 2006

Serbian Minister of Public Administration and Local Self- Government Zoran Loncar said today that Serbia's current Constitution is hindering the country's decentralisation process, which is the basis for overall democratisation.

Zoran Loncar

At a working meeting with presidents of towns and municipalities in Serbia held in Krusevac, Loncar said that the upcoming period will be a stage in which they will all have to muster enough political courage to show minimum responsibility towards citizens in order to dedicate themselves to composing a new constitution.

He recalled that the initiative to change the Constitution was forwarded to parliament for approval a year and a half ago, but that there has been no reply. He added that if parliament approves the initiative, representatives of towns and municipalities will be able to express their own views and point to the issues that should be included in the Constitution and are related with the local self-government.

Loncar announced that, while awaiting the new constitution, the government will amend the Law on Local Self-Government this year since it has proved lacking in many respects.

According to Loncar, even though the previous government, who passed this law in 2002, is deserving of praise for having had the political strength for such an undertaking, the law however has two main drawbacks.

"The first drawback is the considerable extension of authority for towns and municipalities, although four years later these rights have still not been exercised", he said.

The second drawback is the new way of organising the local authorities, because numerous legal solutions are encumbering local self-government with functional problems.

Presidents of towns and municipalities put forward a number of objections to centralisation, especially regarding the tax administration, financial police and market inspection, and most criticism was directed at the fact that municipalities are still not allowed to manage their own property.