Requested by: Serbia, Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government

Recommended Measures:
The Venice Commission makes the following key recommendations: A. To clearly define the various types of referendums and the provisions applicable to them by addressing in detail the following issues in the law: the questions subject to referendum; the hierarchical rank of the provisions submitted to referendum (Constitutional or statutory provisions); the nature of the proposal submitted to referendum (e.g., a generally-worded or a concrete proposal); the effect of the request for a referendum on the current legislation; and to clearly define the issues which cannot be submitted to referendum; B. To reconsider the extension of the right to vote to owners of real estate, or at least to provide this extension in a detailed manner; C. Not to require a fee, or at most a very small one, for signature authentication; D. To extend the right to appeal to all voters and to reasonably extend the deadlines for lodging and deciding on complaints and appeals; E. To reconsider the composition of the electoral administration in order to ensure its independence by revising the relevant legal texts; F. To give to the electoral commissions the power to check to question submitted to voters as well as signatures, and to provide objective information to voters; G. Not to subject private media to a requirement of neutrality, but only require that equal conditions for radio and television advertising be ensured. Furthermore, the Venice Commission recommends, inter alia: A. To reconsider the restrictions on electoral campaigns, in particular by providing a narrower definition of such campaigns, and not excluding automatically unions, churches, religious communities, and foundations; B. To reconsider provisions on the financing of campaigns, e.g. by allowing financing the costs of the referendum campaign with funds obtained from public sources that political subjects receive for financing regular work or election campaigns; C. To extend the deadline between the decision of calling a referendum and the vote, and to restrict the discretionary use by the Assembly of the possibility to reduce this deadline, in particular for constitutional referendums; D. To address the decision-making power of the bodies dealing with proposed referenda, complaints and appeals in a more precise way; E. To request unity of content of the text submitted for referendums (except for total revisions); F. To provide for less restrictive rules concerning the collection of signatures for people’s initiatives; G. To extend the deadline for providing objective information to voters, to be received well in advance of the vote; H. To provide in the law for more detailed rules applicable in the case of emergency.

Measures taken: See opinion No. 1062/2021.