| Vojvodina statute finally to reach parliament? |
| 9 October 2009 | 10:29
| Source:
B92 |
BELGRADE --
The government is expected to rubber-stamp the draft law on the transfer of Vojvodina’s authorities at its cabinet meeting next week.
 | Slavica Đukić-Dejanović (FoNet archive)
|
The Vojvodina statute will then be able to get on the national parliament’s agenda.
The provincial parliament adopted the statute almost a year ago, on October 15, 2008.
According to the ruling coalition, the draft law will be on the agenda of next week’s cabinet meeting.
Debates have raged all year on when the national parliament will see fit to ratify the statute and enact the law on the transfer of authorities.
Parliamentary Speaker Slavica Đukić-Dejanović expects the law and statute to be in parliament by the end of October.
“According to information I have, the ministries are finishing off the draft law and it will be given to the government either this week or next. I expect the government to immediately pass them along to parliament, when they will finally enter procedure,” she said.
There is still no indication as to what form the law will take, but Democratic Party (DS) officials say that it is based on the Serbian Constitution.
“The DS, in its program, clearly supports implementing the full Constitutional substance for Vojvodina and nothing has changed there. If there are differences over what is within the limits of the Constitution and what isn’t, that is no reason for divisions within the party or ruling coalition,” DS official Nada Kolundžija said.
The League of Vojvodina Social Democrats (LSV) say that they have received informal information that the law is being finalized, but that, as far as the party is concerned, the text of the law cannot be considered final until the Vojvodina Executive Council gives its opinion on the document.
“Secretaries from the DS are negotiating with DS ministers and it has become an internal thing, even though this is a serious national issue,” LSV official Aleksandra Jerkov says.
If there are calls to change the statute again and return it for a second reading to the provincial assembly, the LSV says it will have no part in it.
Jerkov said that any insistence on a repeat vote would be an insult to the citizens of Vojvodina.
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