Serbia: Government

Principal Government Officials

Chief of State: President: Tomislav Nikolic
Head of Government: Prime Minister: Mirko Cvetkovic

After two rounds of voting in late 2002 and a third in November 2003 failed because of insufficient voter turnout, the election law was changed to allow for a valid election with turnout of less than 50% of registered voters. In elections held on June 27, 2004 Boris Tadic (DS) defeated Radical Party candidate Tomislav Nikolic by a slim margin and was elected President of Serbia.

Following the adoption of a new Constitution in October 2006, Serbia held parliamentary elections on January 21, 2007. A government was formed in May 2007, with a coalition of the DS, DSS, and G17+. The coalition chose Vojislav Kostunica to continue in his position as Prime Minister. On February 3, 2008, in run-off presidential elections, Boris Tadic again defeated Radical Party candidate Tomislav Nikolic by a slim margin and was re-elected President of Serbia. Following the collapse of the governing coalition in March 2008 in the wake of Kosovo’s independence, new parliamentary elections were held on May 11, 2008. The Democratic Party-led list, "For a European Serbia," won nearly 39% of the vote, and in July 2008 formed a coalition government with the Socialists and ethnic minority parties.

In September 2008, Radical Party (SRS) deputy president and two-time presidential candidate Tomislav Nikolic split from the SRS and formed the Forward Serbia caucus. Together with former Radical General Secretary Aleksandar Vucic, Nikolic officially formed the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in October 2008. As of March 2011, the SNS held 20 seats in parliament due to defections from the SRS, while the SRS maintained 58 seats. The SNS joined two local governments in western Serbia in early 2009 and in December 2009 scored a victory over the DS in the Belgrade municipality of Vozdovac. Local observers have described these electoral victories, as well as an SNS rally in February 2011 in Belgrade that drew an estimated 50,000 participants, as signs of the party’s consolidation.

Legislature
The Serbian National Assembly, a unicameral parliament, is the lawmaking body of the Republic of Serbia.

FOREIGN RELATIONS
Serbia currently enjoys stable diplomatic relations with all of its neighbors except Kosovo.

Immediately preceding the NATO bombing campaign of the F.R.Y. in March 1999, the U.S. and most European countries severed relations with Belgrade, and the U.S. Embassy was closed. After October 5, 2000, foreign embassies, including that of the U.S., reopened and Serbia, as the successor state to the F.R.Y., regained its seat in such international organizations as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the UN, and is actively participating in International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank projects. In 2003, Serbia was admitted to the Council of Europe. Serbia joined NATO's Partnership for Peace in 2006 and in 2009 submitted its first Individual Partnership Program (IPP) to NATO. Public support for joining the Alliance remains low.

Serbia has strongly emphasized its desire to join the EU and has begun to implement a broad reform agenda to advance the government’s EU integration goals. The EU has made full ICTY cooperation a prerequisite for increased cooperation with Serbia, and war crimes fugitives Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic remain at large. Serbia and the EU signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA)--the first step toward eventual accession--in April 2008, but the EU immediately froze the related Interim Trade Agreement (ITA) pending full cooperation with the ICTY. Following ICTY Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz’s reports to the UN Security Council that he was satisfied with Serbia’s level of cooperation with the ICTY, the EU agreed in December 2009 to implement the ITA. The EU also implemented visa liberalization for Serbian citizens in December 2009, allowing visa-free travel to Schengen countries for business and tourism. Serbia submitted its candidacy application to the EU on December 22, 2009, and in June 2010 the EU agreed to submit Serbia’s SAA to member state parliaments for ratification. Following Serbia’s agreement to engage with Kosovo on practical issues in September 2010, the EU formally accepted Serbia’s membership application in October 2010 and set several political conditions for Serbia’s continued EU integration, including continued reforms, dialogue with Kosovo, and full ICTY cooperation. The EU will review Serbia’s membership application in the second half of 2011 and decide whether to grant Serbia full candidate status, possibly by the end of the year.

Serbia's bilateral relationships with many countries were strained following Kosovo's independence in February 2008. In the days following Kosovo's independence, rioters in Belgrade attacked the embassies of several countries, including the United States, causing significant property damage. Serbia recalled its ambassadors for consultations from all countries that formally recognized Kosovo. Serbia returned its ambassadors to EU countries in July 2008 and to the remaining countries in October 2008.

Government officials declared their intent to pursue all peaceful, political, and diplomatic means to retain Kosovo and sought a UN General Assembly resolution to request that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issue an advisory opinion on the legality of Kosovo's declaration of independence. After a vigorous lobbying campaign, on October 9, 2008, the Serbian resolution passed in the UN General Assembly. Serbia, the United States, and other UN member states presented their legal positions to the Court through written briefs and oral presentations in 2009. Kosovo, although not a UN member, was permitted to participate in the written and oral proceedings, as the authors of Kosovo’s declaration of independence. On July 22, 2010, the ICJ released its advisory opinion decisively affirming that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was in accordance with international law and did not violate UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

Aside from Kosovo, Belgrade has made efforts to improve relations with its regional neighbors. In March 2010, the National Assembly passed a resolution condemning the crimes committed at Srebrenica in 1995, which also reaffirmed the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Serbian Government continues to state its full support for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s territorial integrity. President Tadic has taken steps to improve relations with Croatia, working to resolve longstanding obstacles to greater cooperation, including refugee, property, border, and war crimes issues.

Foreign Aid
At the social, political, and geographic crossroads between Eastern and Western Europe, Serbia occupies a key strategic juncture in the Balkans. The U.S. has been engaged in assisting Serbia's transition to a market-oriented democracy since 1997. Despite political uncertainty, U.S. Government assistance to Serbia continues to promote opportunities for economic growth, build capacity with key counterparts, and work steadily to move the country toward stability and Euro-Atlantic integration.

U.S. assistance to Serbia is strategically targeted to address priority U.S. foreign policy objectives and to promote Serbia's successful transition to a functioning market economy and stable pluralistic democracy. These resources, although modest in comparison to the European Union and other multilateral donors, have proven to be instrumental in leveraging other investments and in focusing Serbia's reform agenda.

Annual congressional restrictions have been imposed on U.S. assistance to Serbia in order to ensure that the country meets its obligation to comply with the rulings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). On June 7, 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton certified that Serbia was cooperating with the ICTY.

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