Electronic People's Initiative (RS0055)

Brief description of the Commitment

The commitment implies the establishment of an electronic people's initiative through the creation of a service on the eGovernment Portal https://euprava.gov.rs, which will enable citizens to exercise their right to people's initiative in electronic form.

Problem Definition

1. What problem does the commitment aim to address? The right of citizens to participate in decision-making processes, including the right to propose laws, is guaranteed under the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia ("Official Gazette of the RS", No. 98/06 and 115/21). In this sense, Article 107 of the Constitution establishes that, among other things, at least 30,000 voters have the right to propose laws, while Article 2 establishes that "sovereignty is vested in citizens who exercise it through referendums, people's initiative and freely elected representatives." In other words, the Constitution recognizes the people's initiative as one of the ways in which citizens exercise sovereignty, i.e. as a way of direct participation of citizens in decision-making in a broader sense. The constitutional right to people's initiative is regulated in more detail by the Law on the Referendum and the People’s Initiative ("Official Gazette of the RS", No. 111/21 and 119/21), whose Article 56 stipulates that "by a people's initiative, citizens propose the adoption, amendment, or repeal of the Constitution, laws, other regulations and general acts within the competence of the National Assembly, and/or of the statute, other regulations and general acts within the competence of the Assembly of the Autonomous Province and Local Self-Government Units, and submit other proposals in accordance with the Constitution and the law, and/or the statute of the Autonomous Province and Local Self-Government Unit." However, until the adoption of the aforementioned law in 2021, the Law on the Referendum and the People's Initiative adopted in 1994 was in force, which stipulated very strict conditions for the initiation and implementation of the people's initiative; therefore, the use of this mechanism of citizen participation was extremely rare. By adopting the new law, the basic prerequisites were created which should enable simpler and more efficient realization of the people's initiative in practice, especially by introducing the possibility to collect signatures of support for the submitted initiative in electronic form. Although the legal framework has been significantly improved in the aforementioned manner, the citizens are still not able to exercise their constitutional right to people’s initiative in a quick, easy and simple way, given that the appropriate electronic system has not yet been established.

2. What are the causes of the problem? The main challenge in solving the identified problem is reflected in the fact that an adequate mechanism for the implementation of the people's initiative in electronic form has not yet been established. More precisely, there is a lack of a suitable software solution which would enable the people's initiative, i.e. the collection of signatures of support, to be realized in a quick, easy and simple way.

Commitment Description

1. What has been done so far to solve the problem? As pointed out in the description of the problem, significant progress was made with the adoption of the new Law on the Referendum and the People's Initiative in 2021, which greatly simplified the procedure and eased the conditions for the implementation of the people's initiative. At the same time, its provisions introduced an electronic people’s initiative for the first time ever, thus creating a legal basis for its implementation in practice. Also, based on the relevant legal provisions, the Government had adopted the Decree on the Electronic People's Initiative ("Official Gazette of the RS", No. 85/23) in 2023, which regulates the conditions, method and procedure for implementing the electronic people's initiative.

2. What solution are you proposing? The commitment implies the establishment of an electronic people's initiative through the creation of a service on the eGovernment Portal https://euprava.gov.rs, which will enable citizens to exercise their right to people's initiative electronically.

3. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment? By establishing an electronic people’s initiative, citizens will be able to exercise their constitutional right and support the submitted people’s initiative in a significantly simpler and more efficient way, with the investment of incomparably smaller amount of resources than before. By simplifying the procedure itself, citizen participation is simultaneously encouraged at all levels of the government, while the citizens are encouraged to directly participate in decision-making processes and the creation of public policies and normative solutions in the wider and narrower community in which they live.

Commitment Analysis

1. How will the commitment promote transparency? N/A

2. How will the commitment help foster accountability? N/A

3. How will the commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing, and monitoring solutions? The commitment directly encourages greater and better participation of citizens in decision-making, enabling them to get involved in these processes in a quick, simple and easy way, while reducing the consumption of time and other resources.

Commitment Planning (Milestones | Expected Outputs | Expected Completion Date)

1. Development of a technical specification for the establishment of an electronic people's initiative | Developed technical specification for the establishment of an electronic people's initiative | IV quarter of 2023

2. Establishing an electronic people's initiative through the creation of a service on the eGovernment Portal https://euprava.gov.rs | A service has been established for the purpose of implementing an electronic people’s initiative on the eGovernment Portal https://euprava.gov.rs | I quarter of 2024