Vojvodina Issue

Court: Some Vojvodina Statute provisions "unconstitutional"

Source: Tanjug

BELGRADE -- The Constitutional Court of Serbia has ruled that some provisions of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina Status are not in keeping with the Constitution.

(Tanjug, file)

The court also set a six-month deadline for the Statute to be harmonized with the Constitution.
The decision of the Constitutional Court, which was explained in 140 pages, reads that the provisions, which are not in line with the Constitution, define the Statute as a constitutional act according to which the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina can decide on all issues which are in its interest regardless if this is regulated exclusively by the Constitution or the law.

The Court also determined that unconstitutional provisions of the Statute are also those according to which the province is not limited in terms of its organization and mutual relations between the provincial bodies.

Unconstitutionality is also characteristic of the Statute provisions which have taken over the provisions of the Law on Establishing the Competences of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and which were earlier determined as contrary to the Constitution, and also the provisions which stipulate new or different competences of the province than the ones which are determined by the law.

The Constitutional Court decided to postpone the implementation of the decision for six months so that the functioning of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina would not be brought into question due to expiry of validity of the Statute provisions.

During the period, the provisions of the Statute should be harmonized with the Serbian Constitution and the Law on Establishing the Competences of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, and by the time the act will be fully implemented.