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Law professor Vesna Rakić Vodinelić told Beti that the change of the Constitution of Serbia, which concerns the organization of the government, cannot happen if the decisions taken by the Assembly by a two-thirds majority are not confirmed by the citizens in a referendum.
Commenting on what it is The Serbian government has adopted a proposal to change the Constitution., which refers to the courts and prosecutors, Rakić Vodinelić said that it was a question of changing the organization of the government and that citizens had to vote in a referendum.
She says she is still not sure whether the current government will organize a referendum on constitutional changes.
“The question is whether the rule set will present these constitutional changes as a proxy arrangement, because they do not consider the judiciary as a constitutional branch of state power,” Rakic Vodinelic said.
According to her, it is to be expected that the current regime will bypass the Constitution and adopt constitutional changes on the organization of the government without the declaration of the citizens, although the Constitution obliges them to do so.
When asked by Beta how the European Commission (EC) will react if there is an unconstitutional change to the Constitution, Rakic Vodinelic says that in the latest report, the EC insisted on constitutional amendments regarding the judiciary.
“The EC will not deal with the procedure, they are only interested in changes that allow reform processes related to the fulfillment of the activities of the Action Plan of Chapter 23”, evaluated the professor.
Rakic Vodinelic recalled that article 4 of the Constitution of Serbia says that the organization of power is based on the division of power into judicial, executive and legislative.
“The Constitution also regulates that when the Serbian Assembly adopts a law amending the Constitution by a two-thirds majority, it is obliged to receive confirmation from the citizens in a referendum if it is a question of changing government,” explained the professor.
He added that in order to change the Constitution, a simple majority of the total number of citizens who attended the referendum to confirm the Assembly’s decisions is necessary.
When asked by Beta if the proposed amendments would influence the independence of the judiciary, Rakic Vodinelic said that these amendments would allow even greater influence of politics on the work of the courts.
“The only good thing about these amendments is that judges, presidents of courts and prosecutors will no longer be elected by the Serbian Parliament, but by the Higher Council of the Judiciary and the Council of the State Prosecutor,” he said.
However, Rakić Vodinelić added, for the Superior Council of the Judiciary and the State Fiscal Council (DVT), according to the proposed amendments, the Assembly elects members from the ranks of “prominent legal experts”, although it is not known what means exactly that term.
He also recalled that during the recent DVT election, “the government pressured through the prosecutors themselves to vote and they succeeded.”
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