DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND LEGAL AFFAIRS DIRECTORATE OF MONITORING Strasbourg, 1 October 2010 Public Greco Eval III Rep (2010) 3E Theme II Third Evaluation Round Evaluation Report on the Republic of Serbia Transparency of Party Funding (Theme II) Adopted by GRECO at its 48 th Plenary Meeting (Strasbourg, 27 September – 1 October 2010) Secrétariat du GRECO GRECO Secretariat www.coe.int/greco Conseil de l’Europe Council of Europe F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex +33 3 88 41 20 00 Fax +33 3 88 41 39 55 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro joined GRECO on 1 April 2003. Following the referendum organised in Montenegro on 21 May 2006 and the declaration of independence adopted by the National Assembly of Montenegro on 3 June 2006 and in accordance with Article 60 of the Constitutional Charter of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro ceased to exist. Subsequently, the Republic of Serbia became the successor state to Serbia and Montenegro. GRECO adopted the Joint First and Second Round Evaluation Report on the Republic of Serbia (Greco Eval I-II Rep (2005) 1E) at its 29 th Plenary Meeting (19-23 June 2006). The afore-mentioned Evaluation Report, as well as its corresponding Compliance Reports, are available on GRECO’s homepage ( http://www.coe.int/greco ). 2. GRECO’s current 3 rd Evaluation Round (launched on 1 January 2007) deals with the following themes: - Theme I – Incriminations: Articles 1a and 1b, 2-12, 15-17, 19 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, Articles 1-6 of its Additional Protocol (ETS 191) and Guiding Principle 2 (criminalisation of corruption). - Theme II – Transparency of party funding: Articles 8, 11, 12, 13b, 14 and 16 of Recommendation Rec(2003)4 on Common Rules against Corruption in the Funding of Political Parties and Electoral Campaigns, and - more generally - Guiding Principle 15 (financing of political parties and election campaigns). 3. The GRECO evaluation team for Theme II (hereafter referred to as the “GET”), which carried out an on-site visit to Serbia from 28 to 30 April 2010, was composed of Mr Christian Fredrik HORST, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Government, Administration and Reform (Norway), Mr Jurij TOPLAK, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law Maribor (Slovenia) and the scientific expert, Mr Yves Marie DOUBLET, Deputy Director, National Assembly, Legal Department, Unit of Legal Studies (France). The GET was supported by Ms Laura SANZ-LEVIA from GRECO’s Secretariat. Prior to the visit the GET experts were provided with a comprehensive reply to the Evaluation questionnaire (document Greco Eval III (2010) 5E, Theme II), as well as copies of relevant legislation. 4. The GET met with officials from the Republic Election Commission and the Finance Committee, Ministry of Finance, Ministry for Public Administration and Local Self-Government, State Audit Institution, Anti-Corruption Agency and Misdemeanour Court. In addition, the GET met with members of political parties represented in Parliament. Finally, the GET met with Transparency International, the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID), academia and the media. 5. The present report on Theme II of GRECO’s 3rd Evaluation Round on Transparency of Party Funding was prepared on the basis of the replies to the questionnaire and the information provided during the on-site visit. The main objective of the report is to evaluate the effectiveness of measures adopted by the Serbian authorities in order to comply with the requirements deriving from the provisions indicated in paragraph 2. The report contains a description of the situation, followed by a critical analysis. The conclusions include a list of recommendations adopted by GRECO and addressed to the Republic of Serbia in order to improve its level of compliance with the provisions under consideration. 6. The report on Theme I – Incriminations, is set out in Greco Eval III Rep (2010) 3E, Theme I. 2 II. TRANSPARENCY OF PARTY FUNDING - GENERAL PART Legal framework 7. Political parties are governed by the Law on Political Parties (2009) and several specific laws such as the Law on the Financing of Political Parties (2003, as amended in 2008), which includes provisions on funding sources (including during electoral campaigns), transparency, supervision and sanctions. In addition, the Law on the Election of the President of the Republic of Serbia (2007), the Law on the Election of Representatives to the National Assembly (2000, as amended) and the Law on Local Elections (2007) contain rules on technical aspects of election processes; these laws are supplemented by the Republic Electoral Commission (REC) regulations and decisions. Furthermore, the Constitution (2006) contains several provisions guaranteeing political rights and freedoms, including the freedom of opinion and expression, the right to vote and to be elected, the freedom of assembly and association, and the right to participate in the conduct of public affairs (Article 46 and Articles 52-55 of the Constitution). Definition of political parties 8. The free establishment of political parties is guaranteed by Article 5 of the Constitution. Political parties as such are defined by Article 2 of the Law on Political Parties as “organisations of freely and voluntarily associated citizens set up for the purpose of achieving political goals through democratic shaping of the political will of citizens and through their participation in elections.” This definition is complemented by Article 3 of the Law on Political Parties on minority parties, whose activity is specially aimed at representing the interests of a national minority, as well as protecting and strengthening the rights of its members in line with the Constitution, laws and international standards, as regulated by the party’s foundation act, programme and statute. 9. Political parties are territorial organisations which acquire legal personality upon registration in the Register of Political Parties. Founding and registration of political parties 10. The founding and registration of political parties are regulated by the Law on Political Parties. A political party can be established by at least 10,000 support signatures of Serbian citizens who are at least 18 years of age and capable of work; the statutory requirement in the case of a national minority party is of 1,000 signatures. The application is submitted by the authorised representative of the political party within 30 days of its founding assembly. The mandatory documents which have to be submitted with the application include: the minutes from the party’s founding assembly, its founding act, a standard verification form on the setting-up of a political party duly filled in, statements of the party’s founders verifying the authenticity of the signatures collected, two copies of the party programme and statute, a document verifying the election of the party’s authorised representative and a proof of his/her residence. 11. The Register of Political Parties is kept by the Ministry for Public Administration and Local Self-Government. Upon submission of the application and the required documents (which have previous been certified/verified by the responsible courts and municipal authorities), the Ministry has 30 days to issue a decision for the entry of the political party into the Register. If the Ministry fails to respond within 30 days or if the application is not rejected, it is deemed that the entry has been made one day after the expiration of the 30-day period set by law. A political party becomes operational on the day of entry into the Register. 3 12. Given the significant changes in the registration procedure introduced by the Law on Political Parties in 2009, political parties were given six months to fulfil the new statutory requirements. A political party failing to align its statute and other governing acts with the provisions of the Law on Political Parties and which did not submit the application for entry into the Register by 23 January 2010 was to be automatically deleted from the Register and, consequently, lose its legal person status. A total of 73 political parties (42 of them are national minorities’ parties) are registered in Serbia. The information contained in the Register is public. Participation in elections 13. Serbia is a parliamentary republic with a multi-party system. The Head of State is the President, who is elected by direct suffrage for a term of five years. The 250 members of the National Assembly are elected for a four-year term through a system of proportional representation of candidate lists running in a single nationwide constituency. Mandates are allocated to candidate lists that surpassed a 5% threshold of the votes cast according to the D’Hondt method (the 5% threshold does not apply to parties and coalitions rooted in national minorities). 14. Every citizen of Serbia who has attained 18 years of age and is capable of work has the right to vote as well as the right to be elected . Suffrage is universal and equal for all; elections must be free and direct and voting is carried out by secret ballot in person (Article 52, Constitution). 15. In order to register a candidate list, a party, a coalition or a group of citizens has to submit to the Republic Electoral Commission (REC) a set of documents including a list of at least 10,000 support signatures of registered voters. 16. Elections are conducted by a two-tier administration consisting of the REC and the polling boards. Party representation in Parliament 17. In the parliamentary elections held on 11 May 2008, seats were obtained by the following parties 1: Name of party Acronym Number of seats SERBIAN RADICAL PARTY SRS 77 DEMOCRATIC PARTY DS 64 G17 PLUS G17 21 DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF SERBIA DSS 21 LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY LDP 11 SOCIALIST PARTY OF SERBIA SPS 11 NEW SERBIA NS 9 LEAGUE OF SOCIAL-DEMOCRATS OF VOJVODINA LSV 5 PARTY OF UNITED PENSIONERS OF SERBIA PUPS 5 SERBIAN RENEWAL MOVEMENT SPO 4 ALLIANCE OF VOJVODINA HUNGARIANS SVM 4 SANDZAK DEMOCRATIC PARTY SDP 4 1 Several months after the constitution of the National Assembly, a new party, i.e.