SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
A state union in southeastern Europe. Proclaimed on February 4, 2003; it unites 2 member states - Serbia and Montenegro. Serbia includes 2 autonomous provinces - Vojvodina, Kosovo, and Metohija. The territory is 102.2 thousand km² (Serbia - 88.4 thousand km², Montenegro - 13.8 thousand km²). The administrative center is Belgrade (approx. 1.6 million). The population is approximately 10.1 million. In Serbia, there are 7.5 million (according to the 2002 census). These figures do not include the population of Kosovo, which, according to estimates from the Kosovo Statistical Office (2002), is 1.9 million, of which 91% are Albanians. In Montenegro, there are 673 thousand (according to the 2003 census).
The national composition of the population is heterogeneous; it includes Serbs, Montenegrins, Albanians, Hungarians, Bosniaks, Croats, Romanians, Slovaks, Rusyns, Bulgarians, Roma, and Turks. Religion: the majority of believers are Orthodox. Islam and Catholicism are also widespread.
It has diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation (established between the USSR and Yugoslavia in June 1940).
The history of the struggle of Serbs and Montenegrins for national liberation, gaining independence, and strengthening territorial integrity has deep roots. Full independence after nearly 500 years of subjugation to the Ottoman Empire was achieved by Serbs and Montenegrins in 1878 after its defeat in the Russo-Turkish War. In 1918, they joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (from 1929 - the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). After the end of the National Liberation War of 1941-45, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was established. Since 1963 - the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). The socio-economic transformations carried out here in subsequent years allowed the SFRY to transform from a backward agrarian country into a moderately developed industrial-agrarian state.
In 1991-92, as a result of disintegration processes, the former republics of the SFRY Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia became independent states. After the breakup of the SFRY, Montenegro and Serbia formed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), proclaimed on April 27, 1992. In July 1992, due to involvement in the armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, economic sanctions were imposed on the FRY by the UN Security Council, which remained in effect until 1996. As a result of the escalation of the situation in Kosovo in 1998 and the further development of the crisis in the province in the spring of 1999, NATO carried out a military air operation against the FRY. As a result of the bombings, many industrial and infrastructure facilities in the country were destroyed.
By the end of the 1990s, contradictions in relations between the republics within the FRY gradually increased. After the democratic forces came to power in Serbia in the fall of 2000, a revision of inter-republican relations began. As a result of this process, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was transformed into the state union of Serbia and Montenegro (SCG). On February 4, 2003, the union parliament adopted the Constitutional Charter of the new state union, which became the legal successor of the FRY. A significant aspect for the state formation is the provision in the Constitutional Charter that allows each member state to withdraw from it after three years. Compared to the FRY, the new state formation has significantly reduced functions. The state bodies of the SCG are: the president, the Assembly (parliament), the Council of Ministers, and the court. The Assembly (chairman - Zoran Šami) is a unicameral parliament consisting of 126 deputies (91 from Serbia and 35 from Montenegro). Decisions are made by a simple majority of votes, with a majority of deputies from each member state required to vote in favor.
The President of Serbia and Montenegro (since 2003 - Svetozar Marović) is elected by the Assembly of the state union. The president and the chairman of the Assembly cannot be representatives of the same member state. The president oversees the work of the executive body of the state union - the Council of Ministers, which consists of 5 members: the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister for Foreign Economic Relations, the Minister for Internal Economic Relations, and the Minister for Human Rights and Minorities.
The process of establishing the state union of Serbia and Montenegro was not easy. The structural formation of its state bodies was completed in May 2004 with the approval of the composition of the SCG court. State attributes and symbols (flag, coat of arms, anthem) have not yet been approved; the attributes of the FRY are used.
The economic systems of the two republics within the state union continue to develop largely separately, including in the monetary sphere. This trend has been observed since the mid-1990s. The disintegration process intensified after the introduction of the German mark as the sole means of payment in Montenegro in the fall of 1999 (since January 1, 2002 - the euro). In Serbia, the currency is the dinar.
The country has significant reserves of minerals: ores of non-ferrous metals, chromites, lignite, oil, gas, minerals, etc., and is rich in forest and hydro resources. The black and non-ferrous metallurgy (aluminum and copper smelting), machine engineering, chemical, pulp and paper, textile, and food industries are well developed. Agriculture is capable of not only providing for the country but also exporting products abroad. The main agricultural crops are wheat, sugar beets, and sunflowers; fruit growing (mainly plums) and viticulture. Cattle, pigs, and sheep are raised.
The issue of Kosovo remains acute for the state union. The Constitutional Charter of the SCG affirms Serbia's sovereignty over the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, which is currently under international administration in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1244.
The main priorities of the SCG in foreign policy are integration into European processes and Euro-Atlantic structures, a balanced approach to cooperation with the G8 countries, the development of relations with neighboring states, and regional interaction.
The SCG, as the successor of the FRY, is represented in leading international and European organizations, primarily in the UN and its specialized agencies, in the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.
Major media outlets: in Serbia - "Večernje novosti" (from 250 to 330 thousand copies), "Glas javnosti" (up to 300 thousand), "Politika" (150 thousand), "Blic" (up to 100 thousand), "Danas" (30 thousand); in Montenegro - "Vesti" (30 thousand), "Pobjeda" (20 thousand).