Serbian Ruling Coalition Accused of Stifling Budget Debate

Opposition politicians accused the ruling parties of stifling debate for filing more than 300 amendments to various laws this week, meaning that opposition MPs did not have time during the session to present their proposed amendments to the draft budget law for 2018.

"Our MPs filed around 100 amendments on the budget, but this obstruction showed the authorities' intention to further destroy the political system and institutions in Serbia," the head of Nova Stranka (New Party), former Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic, told BIRN. 

Zivkovic said that MPs from the ruling parties filed meaningless amendments and then withdrew them on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.

Some of the amendments contained similar sentences and some of them were filed to amend the Budget Law for 2017, which will be in force for just 20 days.

Blic daily reported on Tuesday that each MP from ruling coalition, led by the Serbian Progressive Party, proposed on average 17 amendments using the same phrases, such as "to improve efficiency" or to "improve development".

Some of these amendments were filed on each clause of the legislation that was tabled to be discussed before debate began on the 2018 budget law. 

The other laws were discussed at the beginning of the session which started on Tuesday, and MPs from the ruling coalition had the right to speak first.

The opposition warned that the discussion of such a large number of amendments on the other laws would eat up all the time for discussion of the 2018 budget law, as a total of 600 minutes is allowed for debate on amendments.

When that 600 minutes expired on Thursday morning, MPs from ruling coalition withdrew their amendments. 

The...