| Government to discuss Vojvodina bill |
| 3 November 2009 | 11:14
| Source:
B92 |
BELGRADE --
A working draft of the Law on Determining the Jurisdiction of Vojvodina has been published on the government website.
This legislation arranges issues important for the province’s position, and should be sent to parliament along with the draft statute.
According to the President of the Executive Council of Vojvodina Bojan Pajtić all dilemmas and disputes have been resolved, so the Vojvodina issue could be discussed at the government meeting this Thursday while, according to this, MPs will debate it next week.
According to the draft, Vojvodina will have the right to establish an office in Brussels but will be able to sign only regional, not international contracts.
The Vojvodina assembly will not be able to decisions with the power of law, but it will arrange and govern the courts in its own territory.
It 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".
However, the League of Social-Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV) is criticizing the draft.
Despite Pajtić's claims that there are no disputes, LSV warns that they will not vote for this version of the law.
“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.
“We will make amendments and insist on having a meeting with the prime minister. Our goal is not to create problems or to make the situation more difficult, but we won’t by any means allow the citizens of Vojvodina to be in a subordinate position and we won’t allow Vojvodina to lose something by the adoption of these acts,” he was quoted.
Meanwhile, 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.
He added that all the issues LSV considers disputable, such as the source of income and Vojvodina's assets, will be governed by special laws.
Parliament Speaker Slavica Đukić-Dejanović, meanwhile, said she expected that MPs would discuss the draft law and statute during the next session of parliament in November.
The Vojvodina assembly must give its opinion about these issues before that can happen. Even though the next session of the assembly has been scheduled for Saturday, the acts in question are not on the agenda.
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