Venice Commission to draft Serbia's new constitution? FoNet

BELGRADE -- Sunday – A senior official of the Venice Commission of constitutional experts Thomas Markert said today that the Commission is ready to participate in the drafting of a new Serbian constitution.

Markert noted that this possibility has already been discussed with Serbian parliament speaker Natasa Micic.

We have established preliminary contacts explaining that we stand at their disposal in this matter, and it seems that Ms Micic is interested in the Venice Commission's offer to help, said Markert.

Also, there are some very important people and very good legal experts in Serbia with whom we intend to work and who would like us to participate in this process, said Markert.

Markert believes that the drafting of the new constitution should begin soon and assessed that the conditions now exist in Serbia for a much better constitution than the one currently in force, passed during the Slobodan Milosevic era.

I would point out that you have very good legal experts and I think that you can draft a good text, he said.

There are always complications because the political situation is not really straightforward, but I think that the final result, adapted to the situation and the Constitutional Charter of the new state, can make for a very good constitution, Markert emphasized.

The territorial organization of the state will, in Markert's opinion, be the key issue in the new constitution.

I presume that the issue of Kosovo's status will not be ready for final solution when the constitution comes to be passed, but I think that Kosovo should be left alone for the moment, he said. Vojvodina also wants to have it own status and I think that it is clear that the final result cannot be a centralized state, said Markert.

Markert believes an additional problem in the process of drafting the Constitution will be the status of the president of the republic - i.e. the question of whether he should be a strong president, elected directly, or a weak president elected in the parliament.