Home > 5.1.3 Referendum requested by part of the electorate > SERBIA - Urgent Opinion on the Draft Law on the Referendum and the People's Initiative
 
 
 
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Paragraph 53
 

According to the new version of the draft, the fee is RSD 50, which corresponds to 0,42€ per signature (see Article 7 (2)). This corresponds to current practice. This may look like a small amount of money. On the other hand, 30’000 signatures are required for a referendum at the request of the citizens (Article 15(2)). Since a certain percentage of the signatures tend to be invalid, in the end, a higher number of signatures must be collected and authenticated. That would mean that in the case of Serbia, the fee for signature authentication will reach the sum of about 14’000 €. These are very high costs, which might discourage citizens from exercising their political rights. The state must ensure the exercise of political rights, which entail the right to initiate a referendum. If there is a fee for the authentication it should be calculated in a way that all political parties, civil society organisations and citizens movements are able to pay it, and that there is no chilling effect for the submission of a referendum. The Venice Commission therefore recommends that the fee be significantly lowered – or, better, abolished. An alternative could be the reimbursement of the fees as soon as the draft is submitted to Parliament.