Table of content Open Parliament Newsletter PARLIAMENTARY INSIDER Introductory remarks 5 Issue 12 / March - April 2020 From discussing weapons to reviewing the fundamental role of the MPs in the state of emergency 5 Month in the parliament 7 Parliament in numbers 9 OUR HIGHLIGHTS: Analysis of the Open Parliament 11 Women in Parliament: XI Legislature 11 Introductory remarks: Selection of law abstracts 14 From discussing weapons to reviewing the fundamental role Law concerning the confirmation of the Protocol amending the Convention for the of the MPs in the State of Emergencynaslovna Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data 14 Proposal of the Law amending the Law on ID card 16 Open Parliament Analysis Proposal of the Law amending the Law on Road Safety 18 Women in Parliament: XI Legislature Law amending the Law on Local Elections 19 Summaries of the laws Law amending the Law on Election of the Members of Parliament 20 Law concerning the confirmation of the Protocol amending Law amending the Law on Population Protection from the Infectious Diseases 20 the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data Law amending the Law on Local Elections Summaries of the audio reports Strofa, Refren, Replika Law amending the Law on Election of the Members of Parliament 24th episode Law amending the Law on Population Protection from the Infectious Diseases 25th episode 26th episode Audio reports #StrofaRefrenReplika 27th episode 28th episode 29th episode 30th episode 31st episode INTRODUCTORY REMARKS From discussing weapons to reviewing the fundamental role of the MPs in the state of emergency The key highlights of March and April in the Parliament are the reduced activities of the MPs during Spring Session, proclamation of the state of emergency and convening of the first sitting during the state of emergency. During March and April, the MPs worked for five days in total and adopted only four laws and two decisions. After more than a year of absence from plenary sittings, the MPs from Social Demo- THE OPEN PARLIAMENT INITIATIVE cratic Party (SDS) Marko Djurisic and Nenad Konstantinovic have ended the boycott of the Parlia- ment. During this period, a new parliamentary group Vojvodina Front -Serbia 21 was established gathering MPs from Social Democratic Party, League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina and De- The Open Parliament Initiative has been monitoring the work of the Serbian Parlia- mocratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina. Slobodan Velickovic, an MP candidate from the electoral ment every day since 2012. The Open Parliament collects and publishes data on the list “ALEKSANDAR VUCIC – SERBIA WINS”, gained a mandate of a colleague from Party of United Parliament’s work and results and deals with the analysis of various processes from Pensioners of Serbia, Vera Paunovic, who had died at the end of February. the perspective of transparency, accountability and participation. The regular Spring Session started on 2 March by singing the national anthem in the Assembly Hall. Among other, the agenda of the first regular sitting included Proposal of the amendment to The main goal of the Open Parliament Initiative is to increase transparency and ac- the Law on Weapons and Ammunition, related to the extending of the registration deadlines. The countability of the work of the Parliament, to inform the citizens about the work of MPs discussed about complicated procedures, citizens’ general lack of information, but also lazi- the Parliament and to establish regular communication between citizens and their ness of the system to solve such matters. The proposers of the Law, Marijan Risticevic, Djordje Ko- elected representatives. Our work is based on the values contained in the internatio- mlenski and Bojan Torbica suggested to extend the deadline for replacing weapons licence for two nal Declaration on Parliamentary Openness, and the Open Parliament took part in the years, which was supported by the Assembly majority. In addition, two international agreements development of this initiative. and the Decision on dismissal and appointment of members and deputy members of the Republic Electoral Commission were adopted. Since January 2018, the Open Parliament team has increased the focus of this ini- tiative’s activities on democratism and accountability in the conduct of MPs and the On 4 March, the Speaker of the National Assembly Maja Gojkovic called and scheduled local and work of the institution. parliamentary elections for 26 April. The Republic Electoral Commission, which also works in the parliamentary premises, confirmed nine electoral lists during March, and on 15 March when the state of emergency was declared in entire country it has stopped its activities. Method of proclai- ming state of emergency by the signatures from the President of Serbia, Speaker of the Assembly and the Prime Minister ignited the discussion in the public on different interpretations of the hig- hest legal act of the country, as well as the importance and role of the Parliament. Out of 250 MPs, only eight MPs signed the request to urgently convene the Assembly. After the first regular sitting had finished, there were no plenary sittings until the end of the month, and in the hall of the National Assembly only press conferences of Sasa Radulovic, a leader of the Enough is Enough movement, were held. In the second half of March, Radulovic daily addressed the journalists as an MP with the inevitable sentence that Assembly convened during the wars, in The Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Ger- exiles, so this was the first time that Government suspended the Parliament with its own decree. many has been supporting the Open Parliament Initiative However, the Speaker of the Assembly made only one statement when she quoted the sentence since August 2018, including drawing up the newsletter. from the Constitution that “decisions are verified as soon as the Assembly is in a position to con- The views expressed in the newsletter are the views of the vene”. Open Parliament team, but they do not necessarily reflect the views of the donor. 4 5 During April, the activities of the MPs included one administrative committee, one session and do- zens of press conferences. At the sitting of the Committee on Administrative, Budgetary, Mandate and Immunity Issues the MPs have approved the reduction of the Assembly budgets. The MP from 2020 Month in the Parliament Serbian Radical Party, Nemanja Sarovic, then asked what had changed and how they could meet at MARCH the time, and before it had been impossible, but the Chairman of the Committee Aleksandar Marti- novic from Serbian Progressive Party responded that everything was done under law and that the MONTH IN THE PARLIAMENT parts of the decree concerning the ban on gathering do not refer to the members of parliament. On the first session during the state of emergency, by the majority votes of all members of parlia- The first and the last sitting of the Spring Session was held at the beginning of March. The agenda included ment, the MPs have confirmed proclamation of state of emergency and all decrees that the Go- amendments to the Law on Weapons and Ammunition, which will extend the deadline for preregistration of 2. weapons for two years, so the citizens would have enough time to make required examinations and submit the vernment adopted in fighting coronavirus. Long-awaited sitting was organised with full measures documents. Also, the agenda included the Protocol amending the Convention for the Protection of Individuals of precaution, everyone’s temperatures were checked, all the present received protective masks, with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, International agreement on economic and gloves, disinfectants, and in the Plenary Hall the MPs seats were separated with Plexiglas. For the technological cooperation between Serbia and Azerbaijan and the Decision on dismissal and appointment of first time after a while, the group of opposition MPs who had boycotted the work of the Assembly members and deputy members of the Republic Electoral Commission. plenary participated in the sitting, including the group of MPs from Democratic Party, Social Demo- cratic Party, movement Enough is Enough and New Party. The highlights of the two-day sitting were In addition to proposed acts, statements of the representatives of the opposition were also discussed in the sitting. Serbian Progressive Party MP, Vladimir Orlic, wanted Djordje Vukadinovic, who became a Member of the discussion on the state of emergency after the assassination of the Prime Minister, leaders 3. Parliament four years ago under the list that included Dveri, to detach himself from the recent statements of of opposition, primarily Dragan Djilas, Labour Day holiday, and the enormously important role of Bosko Obradovic, the leader of this movement. Discussion on this topic outside of the agenda went on for Aleksandar Vucic in saving citizens’ lives and procuring ventilators. What the MPs failed to discuss more than two hours. However, the sitting was concluded on 4 March on the Voting Day, when all the acts to such great extent were 44 decrees integrated into one law proposal that they had scrutinised from the agenda were adopted. together, along with amending budget, which was submitted to MPs as a decree and it was voted During the sitting, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Maja Gojkovic took note that mandate of Vera as such. Paunovic, the Party of United Pensioners of Serbia MP, has ended on the day of her death. Slobodan 4. Velickovic, an MP candidate from the electoral list “Aleksandar Vucic – Serbia Wins” took her seat. Velickovic As a response to eternal question who had estimated that the Assembly cannot convene in March is a retired army air force engineer. He was an MP in the IX legislature (2012-2014), and during the X when the MPs were not even invited, Government Prime Minister Ana Brnabic had constantly repe- legislature he was appointed the MP in January 2016 and remained in that office until June 2016.