Demostat: Vucic Is Not Going To Sign Agreement on Dialogue with Pristina

Aleksandar Vucic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who has de facto for years been Belgrade's main negotiator in the dialogue with Pristina, is not going to sign an agreement when he gets it, but the Serbian prime minister, Demostat wrote on Jan. 26.

Demostat said that Vucic himself implicitly hinted at this at a news conference where he spoke on a European proposal for normalizing relations between Belgrade and Pristina. It is normal and customary for the agreement to be signed by the prime minister, as the Constitution states that the cabinet is an executive body that conducts Serbian policy at home and abroad.

Where international agreements are concerned, the procedure is for negotiations to be led first, then an agreement which has been harmonized by all sides is adopted, then each side ratifies the agreement, meaning that the content can no longer be changed. For the treaty to be valid, however, it must be okayed by parliament.

Professor of law Vesna Rakic Vodinelic told Demostat that the Belgrade-Pristina agreement would have all of the characteristics of an international treaty. She stressed that the Constitution states that the Serbian cabinet is in charge of internal and external policy, and creates and leads policies. The president has the authority to represent the Republic of Serbia at home and abroad, but, Rakic Vodinelic stressed, representing and acting in the name of the state was not the same.