Rapporteurs
Halvdan Skard (Norway) and Leon Kieres (Poland)
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
1. By letter dated 22 February 2001, Goran Svilanović, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, has requested special guest status with the Congress for his country. At its meeting held on 7 March 2001, the Bureau examined this request and asked Halvdan Skard and Leon Kieres to negotiate with the Yugoslav authorities the procedure for the designation of the Yugoslav special guest delegation and to report to the plenary session in May.
2. The Bureau also decided that this would end the observer status that had been given to two associations within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
3. However, the Rapporteurs wish to recall that under Article 5, paragraph 1 of the Congress Charter and Rule 8 of the Rules of Procedure, observer status was previously granted to the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro by the Chamber of Local Authorities of the Standing Committee on 4 March 1999 and to the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities of Yugoslavia with the Congress and its Chambers by the Standing Committee of the Congress on 9 March 2001. In the meantime, the relations with both associations have developed positively. In the case of the Standing Conference, it must be noted that the Congress had previously established relations with the Association of Free Towns and Municipalities of Serbia, under the chairmanship of the Mayor of Niš, who has now been appointed Federal Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Zoran Živković. However, the two associations have decided to merge in November 2000 after Yugoslavia's return to democracy following the elections in September 2000.
4. Article 5.2 of the Congress Charter and Article 9 of its Rules of Procedure govern the question of special guest status concerning European non member States which have such status with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Following progress and democratisation, the Parliamentary Assembly decided on 22 January 2001 to grant such special guest status to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Federal Parliament). Article 5 of the Congress Charter also indicates that special guest delegations shall have the same number of seats as in the Parliamentary Assembly. In the case of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia this means 7 seats.
5. Given the specific difficulties linked to the complex internal structures of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Bureau, at its meeting of 7 March 2001, requested the Rapporteurs on the verification of credentials, Halvdan Skard and Leon Kieres, to negotiate with the Yugoslav authorities the definition of the designation procedure of the Yugoslav special guest delegation, granting an appropriate place to the different components of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in view of the 8th Congress session in May. This official visit was also to take into account the findings of two Congress observer missions to the elections of the Parliaments of the Republic of Serbia (23 December 2000) and of the Republic of Montenegro (22 April 2001).
6. As Leon Kieres was not available in the time period necessary to prepare the report, Halvdan Skard agreed to go on this official visit, accompanied by Ulrich Bohner, Deputy Head of the Congress Secretariat. This visit took place on 17 and 18 May 2001, as can be seen in the enclosed programme. The Rapporteur wishes to thank the Yugoslav authorities and the Council of Europe Office recently opened in Belgrade for their excellent co-operation concerning this visit.
7. The Rapporteur therefore reports back to the Bureau on 28 May and to the Plenary Session on 30 May 2001. It has to be noted that all the talks with the persons responsible in Belgrade, including in particular the Federal Minister of the Interior, Zoran Živković, and the Secretary General of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities of Yugoslavia, took place in an excellent atmosphere and indeed the people in Belgrade in general seemed to be more confident than before for democratic developments for the future.
8. The Congress Secretariat received on 16 May a letter from Mr Zoran JANKOVIC, President of the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro, requesting that the association's observer status with the Chamber of Local Authorities be maintained, even if special guest status were granted to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Although this does not seem to be formally excluded, it appears to the Rapporteurs that such a step would be contrary to the spirit of the Charter and the Rules of Procedure, that it would not be logical and that it would set a new precedent. In the present situation, it must be reaffirmed that pending future developments, the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro are part of a common central State, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Rapporteurs therefore propose to maintain the ruling of the Bureau that associations of towns and municipalities in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia would no longer hold observer status after the country had been granted special guest status. The Congress should not create a precedent encouraging the breaking up of existing States.
9. This does not prevent the fact that the Yugoslav authorities must give sufficient guarantees to Montenegro in two directions: for the designation of the delegation, all authorities must be involved, including the Republic Serbia, the Republic of Montenegro (for the Chamber of Regions), the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities of Yugoslavia and the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro (for the Chamber of Local Authorities), and adequate seats must be reserved for them. This does not seem to create any problems for the Federal authorities of Yugoslavia nor for the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities of Yugoslavia. During the talks in Belgrade, the Rapporteur took note of a certain number of commitments concerning the future designation procedure of the Yugoslav delegation.
10. First of all, and this was made quite clear by Minister Živković, on the grounds that local democracy is more developed now in Yugoslavia than regional democracy, as no regional structures have been created within Serbia proper, it was proposed that the distribution between the Chambers should include four representatives and three substitutes in the Chamber of Local Authorities and three representatives and four substitutes in the Chamber of Regions.
11. The question as to which authorities are concerned was also discussed. There was agreement that Kosovo would not be eligible for the Yugoslav delegation at this point in time, as this part of Yugoslavia is at present under UN administration on the basis of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244.
12. In the Regional Chamber, the entities represented should include the Republic of Serbia, the Republic of Montenegro and the Province of Voivodina. The competent authorities will decide whether this should include representatives from the respective governments or from the respective parliaments.
13. On the side of the Chamber of Local Authorities, the delegation should include members from Serbia, Montenegro, Voivodina and Sandjak, after consultation of the two associations, the Standing conference of Towns and Municipalities of Yugoslavia and the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro.
14. Furthermore, the procedure should make sure that basic requirements of the Congress Charter concerning the political balance, the gender balance, the geographical balance and the balance between different levels of local authorities should be respected within the delegation.
15. Based on these commitments, the Yugoslav authorities will submit the procedure to the Congress authorities, to be examined hopefully by the Bureau at its meeting in June 2001. The actual composition of the Yugoslav special guest delegation, based on that procedure, could then be examined by the Bureau at its meeting in October 2001.
16. The Rapporteurs also noted that the Minister of the Interior, Zoran Živković, will attend the plenary session and that the Yugoslav side is very keen to continue work on the Economic Forum convened by the Congress, as was the case in Skopje last year and as will be the case later this year in Turkey. In the talks, mention was also made of the Conference on Decentralisation in Yugoslavia to be held in Belgrade on 14-15 June, in co-operation with the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities of Yugoslavia. This Conference could also be the starting point for a report to be established by the Congress concerning the situation of local and regional democracy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, by the two Rapporteurs, Louis Roppe and Owen Masters, and the consultant Jean-Marie Woehrling, in the framework of the examination of the request for membership with the Council of Europe submitted by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in November 2000.
17. On the Congress side, it was regretted that time had been too short for the Congress to be involved in the Conference on Local-government Finance, organised by the Council of Europe's Directorate on Local and Regional Democracy and by the Yugoslav authorities on 21 and 22 May 2001.
18. The Congress would also aim at associating the Yugoslav representatives as closely as possible to any activities related to the Szeged Process or the Stability Pact. In this respect, the Congress would also like to develop the activities of its Local Democracy Agencies, ie, the Agency in Subotica which was the first agency of the network created in 1993 in Voivodina, the Agency in Niksic, Montenegro, created on 11 May 2001 and the Agency to be created in Nis, East of Serbia, before the summer.
19. The Rapporteurs also feel that the special guest delegation of Yugoslavia within the chamber of Regions should be associated with the Working Group "Regions with Legislative Power", given the role they play within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
20. The Rapporteurs propose that the Congress adopt the draft Resolution they have presented.
MISSION TO BELGRADE (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
17/18 May 2001
PROGRAMME
Wednesday 16 May 2001
21.55 Arrival at Belgrade airport – transfer by driver to Hotel Jugoslavija
Thursday 17 May 2001
8.30 Maurice BONNOT, Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Council of Europe office in Belgrade
9.30 Mr STANICIC, General Secretary of the Permanent Conference of Towns of Yugoslavia
“Dom Omladine”, Makedonska 22 (8th floor)
11.30 Mr Dusan MAKSIC, Secretary of the Yugoslav delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Trg Nikole Pasica 13
14.00 Mr Dobrosav MILANOVIC, Deputy Minister of Economical Relations with Foreign Countries
General Zdanova 42
17.00-19.00 Reception at the occasion of the Norwegian National Holiday May 17
Norwegian Embassy
Friday 18 May 2001
9.00 Mrs Gordana VIDOVIC, Deputy Director of the Department OSCE/CoE, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
11.00 Mr Zoran ZIVKOVIC, Federal Minister of Internal Affairs
Mr Trojan STANKOVIC, new General Consul of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Strasbourg and former Advisor of the Association of Free Towns and Municipalities of Serbia
Mrs Irena DUKANAC, Head of the Office of Minister
Palace of Federation
Evening, departure of Mr BOHNER to Osijek (Croatia)
All these meetings took place in the presence of Mr BONNOT, Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, except the meeting with Mr MILANOVIC.
Saturday 19 May 2001
Visit of Mr SKARD to the Local Democracy Agency in Subotica.
Sunday 20 May 2001
Morning, return of Mr SKARD to Oslo (Norway).