Serbia's caretaker government adopted two crucial bills on Friday to pave the way for their ratification by the new parliament following Sunday's general elections.
The government unanimously passed the draft bill on the ratification of the energy agreement with Russia, while the draft bill on ratification of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) and transitional agreement was adopted by only pro-European ministers, who have a majority in the coalition cabinet of nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.
Kostunica and ministers from his Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and his ally New Serbia left the session before the vote was taken on the SAA, which was signed with the European Union on April 29.
Serbia's nationalists bitterly oppose the signing of the SAA, saying it is against the constitution and tantamount to Belgrade accepting Kosovo's Feb. 17 independence declaration. They even claimed that a secret annex to the SAA had also been signed.
Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic, who chaired the session in the absence of Kostunica, presented all the relevant documents to the DSS ministers at the cabinet meeting, noting ahead of the session that the documents were posted on the government's website.
"It's a great shame that the premier says the EU signed something secret with Serbia and to get the EU denial five minutes later," he said.
Belgrade B92 radio had earlier reported the Brussels had denied signing any secret deal with Belgrade, adding that the text signed on April 29 was the same as the one initialed in November.
The other bill, including selling Serbia's oil monopoly NIS to the Russian giant Gazprom, was later unanimously adopted by the full cabinet after Kostunica's ministers returned and Kostunica took over the cabinet chair.
Two previous attempts to decide on the Russian deal failed because the ministers from President Boris Tadic's Democratic Party (DS) and those from the G17 Plus technocrats refused to vote.
Friday's session was held amid a media blackout on election issues from midnight on Thursday until the end of the elections on Sunday evening.
Source: Xinhua
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