SRBIJA I CRNA GORA - OD FEDERACIJE DO KONFEDERACIJE
SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO - FROM FEDERATION TO CONFEDERATION

Author(s): Slobodan Vučetić
Subject(s): Politics, Constitutional Law, Governance, Government/Political systems, Electoral systems
Published by: CEDET Centar za demokratsku tranziciju
Keywords: Federation; confederation; union of states; referendum; legality; legitimacy; Agreement on Principles; Constitutional Charter
Summary/Abstract: SR Yugoslavia, like the previous two, was created in dramatic international and internal political and wartime circumstances. They are the reason that the Constitution of the new Yugoslavia (which consists of Serbia and Montenegro) was not adopted in a democratically legitimate and legal procedure. Its ten-year century (1992-2002) was marked by rigorous international economic and political sanctions and war events on the territory of the former SFRY. At the same time, in the FRY, primarily in Serbia, an authoritarian, neo-communist system of government was established, which was embodied by Slobodan Milošević, the president of Serbia (since 1997 - the president of the FRY). The constitutional order of Serbia has not been harmonized with the Constitution of the FRY for all time, so the FRY was created and functioned as a political and legal provisional. The functioning of the government, primarily in Serbia, was characterized by disrespect for the constitution and laws, gross violations of civil liberties and rights, degradation of basic constitutional institutions, dominance of the party and executive power, and the establishment of informal centers of political and economic power outside the institutions specified by the Constitution. The political and constitutional crisis of the FRY was greatly accelerated by the sharp conflict (since 1997) between the Belgrade center of power, which was controlled by S. Milošević, and the Montenegrin authorities headed by M. Đukanović, which began reforms of the economic and legal system of Montenegro in accordance with EU standards. Various attempts by Milošević's government to "discipline" the Montenegrin government (economic sanctions, media war, etc.) ended with the government in Montenegro gradually taking over the economic and other functions of the federation (except for the army). The Montenegrin government offered a constitutional platform (1999), which would lead to the establishment of a "weak" federation, a de facto confederation of Serbia and Montenegro, which was ignored in Belgrade. Even after the 2000 federal elections, which were boycotted by the authorities in Montenegro, the crisis of the federal state continued. This led to the political mediation of the EU, the aim of which was to define the relations between Serbia and Montenegro on a new basis. That process resulted in the adoption of the Belgrade Agreement (March 14, 2002) on the future relations between Serbia and Montenegro within their state union. That Agreement actually verifies the found, existing situation and projects the future state union as a specific confederation, a kind of real union, with minimal common functions and organs that would function on the principle of consensus. The perspective of the future state union will depend significantly on the quality and speed of reforms in Serbia and Montenegro in accordance with the legal and economic standards of the European Union.

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