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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Constitution's Preamble based on international law

Belgrade, 16 October 2006

Advisor to the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Simic said yesterday that the new Constitution's Preamble, which says that Kosovo-Metohija is an integral part of Serbia, is based on international law and on constitutional-legal practice and history.

Aleksandar Simic

Simic told the Tanjug news agency that framers of the Constitution were guided by the fact that according to international common law Kosovo-Metohija is part of Serbia. The United Nations Charter, the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the Chernomirdin-Ahtisaari Agreement, which was a condition for the termination of bombing of Serbia, and the Kumanovo Military Agreement confirm this fact.

Simic said that the documents which ended NATO bombing of Serbia are not documents of capitulation and that has to be stated clearly, because if they were then there would be no status talks or activities by the United Nations and the international community on defining the state and legal status of Serbia's southern province.

He said that legal procedure for changing the existing Constitution does not require a public debate, adding that in the majority of countries a public debate is not required to change the Constitution, citing the examples of Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Scandinavian countries. As far as the referendum is concerned, it is not usual practice in Germany and the US.

According to Simic, the referendum campaign which Serbia is conducting is a kind of public debate on the Constitution, although it cannot bring about a change of the Constitution's text.

Speaking about the Preamble which states that Kosovo-Metohija is an integral part of Serbia, Simic gave the example of the German Basic law from 1949 which proclaimed the territorial unity of German countries. Conditions for that provision's realisation had not been fulfilled until the Berlin wall was pulled down and two German republics united.

There are examples that parts of the territory of a certain state are not actually under the constitutional and legal order of that country, but in constitutional and legal terms they are considered parts of its territory, Simic added and gave the example of the Chinese Constitution, whose Preamble explicitly states that Taiwan is an integral part of Chinese territory and that it is the obligation of all state organs to treat it as such and to aspire to a peaceful unification.

Simic said that until now we had a "hard" Constitution, difficult to change, while the new Constitution has a "softer, therefore regular" procedure for change, i.e. it requires a two-third majority in parliament and the consent of citizens through a referendum is required only in case of fundamental provisions, expressed by a majority of the total number of voters who went to the polls.