“Demots”: Who will sign the Franco-German agreement in Serbia?

Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, who “de facto” for several years has been Belgrade's chief negotiator in dialogue with Pristina, will not put his signature in the agreement, and when the time comes, the signing will be placed by Serbia's prime minister, Ana Brnabiq. This is because, as Vuciqi said, at the conference with journalists Monday, in which he spoke of the European agreement to normalise relations between the two countries, and after meeting with the former “ (EU representative Miroslav Lajcak, US special envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar, German Chancellor Jens Plotner's adviser, French President Emmanuel Bonne's adviser, and Italian Prime Minister Francesco Talo's adviser), writes “Demosta”, conveys Klankosova.v.

Vuciq at the conference said the following:

I know what I will decide, but not on behalf of Serbia. Understandably, on behalf of Serbia they will deploy other competent state bodies and possibly citizens, as it would be contrary to the Constitution of Serbia”, Vuciqi said.

He stressed that, so far, nothing has been signed, but that in the meeting with the five has been met with facts, he has been subsequently told that if Serbia does not accept the offered plan, it would face the interruption of the process for European integration, attracting investments and comprehensive measures in the political and economic sense.

Vuciqi added that in the coming days he will inform all representatives of parliamentary groups in Serbia's Assembly of details of the plan.

“We will create real institutional transparency, we will look for a more significant role for parliament and government, I think it is important, always inform and listen to the opinion of the Serbian Church and all other religious communities on the territory of Serbia”, Vuciqi said and added that the government has hired all tactical movements like “anyone who is taking over”.

Meanwhile, it becomes known that Serbia's Assembly session for Kosovo, in which Vuciqi will participate, will be held on February 2nd and, according to the likelihood, will last for several days.

Who can sign the agreements on behalf of the state?

When international agreements are questioned, the procedure says once negotiations are made, then the text of the agreement the parties have agreed on is approved, and then each party confirms (prefigures) the contract, which means that the content of the text can no longer be changed. However, for the agreement to be valid, it must be passed into the process of confirmation before the Assembly (of Serbia).

When the Brussels agreement was signed, the signing was set by Serbia's Prime Minister Ivica Dacic on April 19th, 2013. Several days later, exactly 22 April, Serbian government has unanimously pledged to sign the Brussels agreement, the first agreement on principles regulating normalisation of relations between Belgrade and Pristina. In contrast, Serbia's assembly on April 26th, following lengthy parliamentary discussions, has approved the Serbian government's report of the interim process of dialogue with Kosovo, part of which the agreement signed in Brussels.

Serbia's law professor Vesna Rakiq Vodineliq tells of “Demostat” that the agreement between Belgrade and Pristina has all the points of an international agreement. She cites that “under the Constitution of Serbia, domestic and foreign policy leads the Government of Serbia, which is responsible for shaping and developing”.

The president has the authority to represent the Republic of Serbia inside and abroad, but”, as Rakiq Vodineliq points out, “representation and state representation are not the same”.

There is a clear constitutional provision under which the government implements domestic and foreign policy. What happened in our country is that Vuciqi took over the competencies of the other executive authorities and sometimes even court”, she says.

If the Constitution is respected, it emphasises, the agreement should be signed by Serbia's prime minister. Rakiq Vodineliq, however, says he is not exempt from signing Serbia's own president or any minister who should have authorised the government of Serbia for signing the agreement.

Commenting on the fact that the international community is negotiating with Vucinqi and not with Serbia's Government, which must lead domestic and foreign policy, Rakiq Vodineliq says it would be good to be the government that formulates a policy assigned to Kosovo, and then to inform the president of the Republic and give him the authority to negotiate on that.

The “well, in the process, is the opposite, as Vuciqi received competencies that did not belong to the Constitution and went to negotiations without the government formed platform. After the negotiations Friday, he came to inform the government what happened in negotiations”, Rakiq Vodineliq says.

The fact that, as Vuciq said, the people will decide on the agreement does not necessarily mean that a referendum will be announced, but may mean that representatives of the people will decide on it, the deputies of Serbia's Parliament, respectively.

Rakiq Vodineliq claims it is not mandatory, but prior to the signing of the agreement, the referendum must be announced to take the citizens' opinion.

She also adds that the referendum in Serbia does not have much legitimacy and that its value is not particularly great, because the Constitution does not specify the minimum number of citizens to come up so that the referendum is successful and in order for an issue to be passed on in the referendum, it is necessary only to a simple majority of those who came out for it.

Professor Rakiq Vodinelj also believes parliament should be declared for the possible agreement before it is signed, because it is the most recent “ <x0-year authority” and the government must act according to its instructions.

But who will sign the eventual sanctions against Russia?

Although for several months the opinion has been formed upon the conviction that Serbia's president remains the authority, which decides to impose sanctions on Russia, which can be understood by his statements.

However, Serbia's government will officially make a final decision on sanctions, which should be ratified in the assembly as well.

Serbia's Prime Minister Ana Brnabiq, several months ago, in the debate over the new government in the Assembly, talking about the possible deployment of sanctions, said ministers would vote on it and that this is the issue of Serbia's government.

Let's see, President Vuciq talked a lot about it. We will fight, as we are now fighting”, Brnabiq said at the time and noted how ministers will vote when the issue of imposing sanctions against Russia is put forward.