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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia united in Constitution adoption process

Lazarevac, 13 October 2006

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said today in talks with miners, management and trade unions of the Kolubara mining basin that it has been centuries since the Serbian people showed such unity in the process of adopting its new Constitution.

Kostunica noted that representatives of national minorities said that the new Constitution is wide ranging enough for them, which confirms that the country’s fundamental legal act is created for all citizens of Serbia.

The Prime Minister said that the new Constitution reinforces democratic institutions and develops the process of decentralisation, but does not put the country’s unity into question.

According to Kostunica, had it not been for Kolubara, the new Constitution would not have been there. In September and October 2000, Kolubara made it possible to Serbia to move forward, he said.

Kostunica invited the miners to vote in the referendum and support the Constitution and repeated that Kolubara is the main lifeblood of Serbia’s future.

It is important that the Constitution is as durable as it is democratic, preserves the country as a whole, gives widest rights to minorities and originated from the people, which is good, said the Prime Minister and recalled that this legal act was unanimously adopted in parliament.

He explained that the work on the Constitution has been speeded up as Serbia became an independent state and added that in the light of Kosovo-Metohija’s future status talks, the new Constitution should reiterate that Kosovo-Metohija is Serbia’s integral part with essential autonomy within Serbia.

According to Kostunica, it is necessary to protect Kosovo-Metohija both with international law and domestic law, i.e., the Constitution.

Kostunica recalled that Serbia has its insignia – flag, coat-of-arms and national anthem, while the fourth missing symbol is the Constitution.

Members of the Serbian government talk with journalists at a restaurant in Lazarevac

Serbian Minister of Capital Investment Velimir Ilic said in talks with the miners that Kolubara and Lazarevac are the state’s engine and said he was sorry that this municipality put forward so few projects for the funds from the National Investment Plan.

Serbian Minister of Energy and Mining Radomir Naumov stressed that Kolubara is the core of Serbia's energy industry and announced investments for the expansion of the basin's coal pit.

Naumov said that Kolubara will remain state-owned and that foreign capital will be attracted through strategic partnership. Serbian Minister of Economy Predrag Bubalo stated that the government expects a stable economic development and GDP growth in years-to-come, while the whole country will become a big construction site.

Bubalo said that the new Constitution envisages privatisation of city building land, that legal and physical entities from abroad be equalised with the domestic and that social ownership be abolished, all of which should boost the level of foreign investments in Serbia.

Serbian Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Policy Slobodan Lalovic said that employees of Kolubara and Electric Power Industry of Serbia have carried the burden of transition in the past five to six years. He used the occasion to announce a 20% increase in their salaries as of early 2007. Kostunica and ministers Velimir Ilic, Radomir Naumov, Predrag Bubalo and Slobodan Lalovic, visited the open mine pit Polje D near Lazarevac, before meeting with workers and trade unions.

After that, the government delegation met with the management of the Lazarevac municipality. The Prime Minister and the ministers concluded the visit to this city with a walk and visit to the church of Saint Dimitrije.