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Eastern dimension and the Balkans / Comment

Constitutional referendum in Serbia: democratic reform and Euro-Atlantic integration on hold?

01/11/2006 By Jos Boonstra

Last month, on 28 and 29 October, just over half of Serbian citizens went to the polls and voted in favour of a new constitution. In almost any country, an event of this kind would be quite an occasion; however, this is not the case in today’s Serbia.

The process leading up to the referendum, as well as the issues that the country will need to address, all seem to be overshadowed by and connected to the moment when an international decision on Kosovo is taken.

Serbia’s democratically-orientated politicians are concerned primarily with the sequencing of events; that is, they are constantly contemplating the ‘Kosovo dilemma’ instead of moving the country forward through structural reform.

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Keywords

Conflict resolution Democratic control Democratisation Governance International Criminal Justice NATO Post conflict Serbia Western Balkans

Bio author: Jos Boonstra

Jos Boonstra is senior researcher in the democratisation programme of FRIDE. He focusses on EU, NATO and OSCE policies in Eastern Europe and beyond with specific attention to democratisation of security and defence.