The sitting of the National Assembly of Serbia on the Republic Budget was scheduled only 24 hours in advance. The parliamentary leadership has yet again demonstrated its intention to nullify the role of the Parliament and limit the debate, even though one of the most important laws of the country is on the table. The outcome of such conduct may be the adoption of potentially bad solutions that go against the citizens interests.

This intention of the ruling majority is further verified by the fact that, starting today, MPs have the task of discussing another 34 documents – that is more than 2,700 pages of material that entered the parliamentary procedure during the past two weeks.

"This kind of agenda does not allow for quality preparation, work and discussion. It is especially concerning that this kind of practice is applied when one of the most important laws, the Budget of Serbia, is discussed. Even the public hearing on the Budget did not significantly contribute to the preparation of the MPs for the debate, as it also took place on Sunday, right before the scheduling of the session. When a sitting is scheduled within these deadlines not only are the MPs deprived of the time they need to prepare, but the rules of the Assembly also prevent them from submitting amendments to the agenda. This can result in a law with inadequate solutions for citizens", said Tamara Branković from the Open Parliament.

The Open Parliament is deeply concerned that negative practices, which undermined the reputation and significance of the National Assembly in earlier convocations, are once again present. In addition to constant convening of sessions according to urgent procedures, it seems that the goal is to prevent pluralism, debate and exchange of opinions, both during parliamentary plenums and sittings of parliamentary committees.

The Open Parliament would also like to remind that during the previous convocation there were some noticeable improvements in parliamentary work. However, these improvements were not implemented in the rules and procedures. This implementation is something the Open Parliament advocated, warning that otherwise they could easily be abandoned, which is what we are witnessing now.

The Open Parliament has developed a set of recommendations, including the Model Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly. These proposed solutions aim to enable all MPs equal access to the Parliament, as well as to transform the Parliament into a space for adequate discussion of topics of public interest. Some of the issues the recommendations touch upon are: the necessity to discuss the non-existence of the annual work plan for the Assembly; the need to have no other agenda points at the Republic Budget session; the role of the Speaker of the Parliament and its deputies; the fundamental application of the Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament, and the need for the parliamentary agenda to include not only proposals submitted by the executive authorities, but the proposals of MPs as well.