On 4 February 2003, the new state of Serbia and Montenegro was proclaimed after its Constitutional Charter had been approved by the lower house of Parliament of the old Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). Thus ended constitutional uncertainty whose seeds were sown at the very foundation of the FRY in 1992, and that
broke into open view in the late 1990s as Slobodan Milosevic attempted to undermine Montenegro’s autonomy, and Milo Djukanovic, then President and now again Prime Minister of the smaller republic, worked instead to strengthen its de facto independence.
broke into open view in the late 1990s as Slobodan Milosevic attempted to undermine Montenegro’s autonomy, and Milo Djukanovic, then President and now again Prime Minister of the smaller republic, worked instead to strengthen its de facto independence.
The birth of the new state was greeted with little fanfare or enthusiasm, and it has as yet neither a flag nor a national anthem. Few in either Serbia or Montenegro were satisfied with the arrangement. Just about the only positive reaction was relief that months of wrangling over the constitutional set-up had been concluded. Even before the new union had been formally established, the painful course of the negotiations over its founding Constitutional Charter showed the lack of consensus behind its creation. EU pressure, rather than any shared commitment on the part of the two republics, brought Serbia and Montenegro into this redefined union. The manner of its beginning does not augur well for its future.
