On 26 October, the head of the Permanent Representation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Milos Aligrudic, and Representation members, Miloljub Albijanic and Dusan Prorokovic, met members of the PACE Ad Hoc Delegation on a visit to Serbia, where they are to serve as a monitoring mission for the referendum to confirm Serbia’s proposed new constitution.

The Serbian officials informed PACE members of the situation in Serbia on the eve of the referendum, explained the voting procedure, and clarified certain points of the referendum process. They especially hailed the arrival of the monitoring mission, stating that the referendum was an important event for both Serbia and Europe, as well as for the Council of Europe.

As the Serbian officials said, the referendum was an extremely important event, as voting in favour of the proposed new Constitution would at the same time mean that the Serbian people were voting in favour of the nation’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. They added that this was an opportunity for ‘resolutely expressing the jointly held view that Kosovo was part of Serbia’s territory’, all the more so since there were ‘no relevant powers in Serbia ready to give up this goal’.

The head of the PACE Ad Hoc Delegation, Alexander Fomenko, said that the adoption of the Constitution would be an important step for Serbia, and relayed the Council of Europe’s readiness to support Serbia in implementing it. The proposed new Constitution would also bring Serbia closer to European integrations, CoE observers said.