Bill on Vojvodina to be discussed in Serbian assembly
Tue 3 Nov 2009
A working draft of the Law on Determining the Jurisdiction of Vojvodina, which arranges issues important for the position of the Serbian province will be discussed in the Serbian assembly next week. According to the President of the Executive Council of Vojvodina Bojan Pajtić all dilemmas and disputes have been resolved and governing parties support the proposals. However, League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV) is criticizing the draft and warns that they do not support this version as it does not respect the basic principles of the autonomy of the province.
It says in the draft, published on the website of the Serbia government, that Vojvodina will have the right to establish an office in Brussels but will be able to sign only regional, not international contracts. Furthermore, Vojvodina assembly will not be able to take decisions with the power of law, but it will arrange and govern the courts in its own territory and the province will have a development bank, but a special law will govern the province’s assets.
The Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians has stated that the draft of the law is “not ideal”, adding that the party will still support both the law and the statute “because it does not want to stop Vojvodina’s development”. LSV on the other hand is unsatisfied: “We cannot agree that Vojvodina will not have a capital city, its academy of science and arts, that it cannot govern public enterprises and that the source of income and assets won't be determined,” said Bojan Kostreš, the LSV deputy president. LSV will make amendments and insist on having a meeting with the prime minister.
The ruling For European Vojvodina coalition parliamentary group chief Dragoslav Petrović said he did not see any reason to change the draft of the law.
Source: B92 and Radio Slobodna Evropa
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