Parliamentary Insider
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Table of content Open Parliament Newsletter PARLIAMENTARY Introductory remarks 5 A parliament without pluralism, a form without essence 5 INSIDER Month in Parliament 7 Issue 14 / October - December 2020 Parliament in numbers 11 Open Parliament’s Analysis and Points of view 13 Serbia is making progress, it is just that the EU cannot see it 13 The Serbian Parliament is hiding the name of the candidate OUR HIGHLIGHTS: for the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality 14 Conclusions getting shorter and shorter 14 Introductory remarks: The Open Parliament demands the withdrawal of the Code A parliament without pluralism, a form without essence of Conduct for MPs from the parliamentary procedure 15 naslovna Analysis of the Code of Conduct for MPs 16 Open Parliament Analysis and Points of view Selection of law abstracts 18 Serbia is making progress, it is just that the EU cannot see it Law Amending the Law on Protection of the Population from Infectious Diseases 18 Law on Amendments to the Property Tax Law 21 The Serbian Parliament is hiding the name of the candidate for the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Law on the Confirmation of the Loan Agreement (Serbia Emergency COVID-19 Response Project) between the Republic of Serbia and the Conclusions getting shorter and shorter International Bank for Reconstruction and Development 23 Law on Confirmation of the Framework Loan Agreement LD 2053 (2020) Analysis of the Code of Conduct for MPs between the Council of Europe Development Bank and the Republic of Serbia, for financing the public sector – support to the efforts of the Republic of Serbia to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic 25 Summaries of the laws Law on the Confirmation of the Framework Loan Agreement LD 2026 (2019) between the Council of Europe Development Bank and the Republic of Serbia Audio reports of Couplet Chorus Replica for the Programme Loan – Water supply and waste water treatment facilities 26 Law on amendments to the law on establishing the public interest and special procedures for expropriation and issuance of a building permit for the implementation of the “Belgrade waterfront” project 28 Law on amendments to the Law on mandatory social security contributions 29 Law on Amendments to the Law on public property 30 Audio reports of Couplet Chorus Replica 32 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS A parliament without pluralism, a form without essence Two and a half months passed from the announcement of the election results to the constitution of the Assembly without any events occurring in this representative body. Nonetheless, the autumn in the parlia- ment was marked by activities and the adoption of important draft acts, the election of a new Speaker of the Assembly, the adoption of the budget for 2021 and the Code of Conduct for MPs. The newly formed 12th convocation, which functioned as the main board of one party during the first two months of work, marks the least pluralism since the beginning of multi-party system in Serbia. Parliament worked practi- THE OPEN PARLIAMENT INITIATIVE cally without opposition and all decisions and HR decisions were made, in most cases, on the proposal of a list “Aleksandar Vučić – For Our Children”, even when parliamentary procedures allowed for a public dialogue on the proposed solutions. The Open Parliament Initiative has been monitoring the work of the Serbian Parliament every day since 2012. The Open Parliament collects and publishes data on the During the autumn sessions, the MPs worked in the plenum for 23 days: they spent three days in the Parliament’s work and results and deals with the analysis of various processes from plenum in October, five during November, and 15 days in December. A total ofnine regular sessions, two the perspective of transparency, accountability and participation. special sessions and one Constitutional Session were held. From the beginning of October to the end of December, the MPs adopted 50 laws. One public hearing was held, and MPs had the opportunity to ask The main goal of the Open Parliament Initiative is to increase transparency and questions to members of the Government on the last Thursday of the month only once – in November. accountability of the work of the Parliament, to inform the citizens about the work of the Parliament and to establish regular communication between citizens and their In October, MPs elected leadership of the 12th convocation and voted on a new Law on Ministries in elected representatives. Our work is based on the values contained in the international order to introduce new portfolios and define the competencies of ministries. The new ruling coalition Declaration on Parliamentary Openness, and the Open Parliament took part in the consists of 243 MPs from the Serbian Progressive Party, the Socialist Party of Serbia and the Serbian development of this initiative. Patriotic Alliance, while the opposition is represented by six MPs from the minority list United Valley – SDA Sandžak, made up of Albanians and Bosnians, and one independent MP. Since January 2018, the Open Parliament team has increased the focus of this After more than six months of delay, MPs elected the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality in a initiative’s activities on democratism and accountability in the conduct of MPs and the non-transparent and sudden procedure in November. Brankica Janković, the only proposed candidate work of the institution. for the position, was elected on the proposal of the parliamentary group “Aleksandar Vučić – For Our Children”. The law on tax procedure, republic taxes, property tax and two customs laws, prepared by the The Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany has been supporting Government, were adopted. None of 250 MPs had an objection, amendment or proposal in the form of the Open Parliament Initiative since August 2018, including drawing up the newsletter. amendments to these laws. The views expressed in the newsletter are the views of the Open Parliament team, but they do not necessarily reflect the views of the donor. The ministers of the new Government of the Prime Minister Ana Brnabić came to the Assembly for the first time and personally answered MPs’ questions. Eight MPs exercised this right. Parliamentary questions referred to the rights of national minorities, the coronavirus, the environment, but also the property of the brother of one of the opposition leaders, Dragan Đilas. In November, for the first time, a number of ministers submitted reports on their work to the competent committees. This act was just a mere fulfilment of form without the true oversight over the work of the executive power, and we could see that in the example of the session of the Committee on Internal Affairs when MPs thanked Minister Aleksandar Vulin for finding time to come and when the chairman of the Committee for Environmental Protection Ljubinko Rakonjac invited MPs not to talk much about a newsletter e oalen u finansisu pooc Eropse This newsletter is produced with the the report on the work of the ministry, but to make a proposal or, if they want, to congratulate Minister unie Za sadržinu oog newslettera isključivo je odoorna assistance of the EU and the Swiss Crta i ta sadržina nipoto ne odražaa zvanične staove Irena Vujović on the election. Evropske unie Cooperation Office in Serbia. The contents of this newsletter are the sole responsibility of In December, the MPs adopted the Budget for 2021 within the legal deadline. The discussion time was the implementing party Crta and may in no doubled, but it was mainly used to point out all the good economic decisions made in the previous year way be taken to reflect the views of the EU and the Swiss Cooperation Office in Serbia. and to talk about how Serbia would show in the next year that it is the leader in the region with one of the best economies in Europe. 5 At a special session, the MPs spoke about the reports of independent bodies and institutions: the Ombudsman, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality and the State Audit Institution for 2019. After a 2020 Month in Parliament one-day debate, the MPs adopted all the conclusions proposed by the competent committees on OCTOBER the basis of the report. There were no discussions within the Committee, the adopted conclusions were reduced to supporting statements. MONTH IN PARLIAMENT The last two plenary sessions attracted the most public attention. At these sessions, the MPs discussed and adopted the Code of Conduct for MPs and the European Commission’s Progress The constitution of the Assembly, which began on August 3rd, continued only at the end of October with the Report for 2020. During the discussion, the Code was presented as a mechanism for regulating the election of the Speaker, Vice Speaker, Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General of the National 22. Assembly. Four months after the election and 80 days after the confirmation of the parliamentary mandates, behaviour of future opposition MPs. The draft document was modified by the amendments of the the leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia, Ivica Dačić, was elected Speaker of the National Assembly of the Serbian Progressive Party MP Vladimir Orlić, in a way that every natural person can file a report for Republic of Serbia. Dačić’s election was preceded by more than seven hours of debate in which coalition violating the Code and envisages the establishment of an Ethics Commission, which will have an partners expressed expectations that the new leadership would restore the reputation of the Parliament, in advisory and educational role. The application and oversight of the application of the Code remain which, for the first time since the renewal of multi-party system in Serbia, there has been almost no opposition.