29 July 2010.

The delegates of the Serbian Parliament have elected Dejan Soskic for the new National Bank Governor, while resolving the hitherto governor Radovan Jelasic of duty. The MPs have also voted fro the new rules of proceedings, along with several laws and amendments to the Law on Anti-Corruption Agency. Besides that, several financial agreements have been confirmed. The report from Biljana Blanusa.

The new National Bank Governor, Dejan Soskic, has got the support of 129 delegates from the ruling coalition. Representatives of the opposition were against him, because they had no opportunity to learn about his approach to the task.

MP of the Democratic Party of Serbia Radojko Obradovic has pointed that they have no objections to Soskic’ biography, but being uninformed about his program, they have decided to refrain from supporting his election. Obradovic pointed to some important tasks of the new governor, including the solving of the foreign debt and stabilization of the national currency, for which so far 1.5 billion euro has been spent from the currency reserves. The Radical Party did not vote for Soskic because, according to Head of the MP Group Dragan Todorovic, he is expected to continue to previous policy of governor Radovan Jelasic. He is criticized, however, for not implementing an adequate policy of the currency reserves, depreciating the national currency and the fact that Serbia has the highest credit interest rates in Europe. Representative of the MP Group “Forward Serbia” Jorgovanka Tabakovic asked about the supervision of governor’s work and cooperation with the Government, since that would be of decisive significance for his work.

So far, Dejan Soskic has been the President of the National Bank Council, and after the resignation of Radovan Jelasic on March 23, he was suggested for a new governor. The proposal came from the Serbian President Boris Tadic, while now in the post of the President of the National Bank Council is Bosko Zivkovic, who has been a member of the Council since 2003.

The MPs have also adopted the rules of proceedings and the Law on trade, which is aimed to provide the stable supply to the market with the least possible interference from the state, in order to enable the efficient functioning of the market economy. For the first time, in the new law, there is a clear definition of trade in sales facilities and outside them, as well as their formats. The amendments to the Law on traffic safety envisage replacing the prison sentence in certain cases with financial fees up to 150 thousand dinars. The amendments to the Law on Anti-Corruption Agency have enabled all delegates and MPs to perform any other functions as well, but the end of their turn. Also, the protection is introduced for state bodies’ employees who report on corruption, as the Agency will provide assistance and guarantee the anonymity. The members of the Serbian Assembly have also confirmed several financial agreements with the Russian Federation, France and European Investment Bank.