Nataša Vučković

Nataša Vučković (Serbian Cyrillic: Наташа Вучковић; born 11 January 1967) is a politician in Serbia. She has served in the National Assembly of Serbia since 2007 as a member of the Democratic Party (Demokratska stranka, DS).

Early life and private career

Vučković was born in Zagreb, then part of the Socialist Republic of Croatia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. She graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law in 1990 and has been a lawyer since 1994. She also graduated from the European University Centre in 2006 with a focus on European Union law.

She founded the Center for Democracy Foundation in Serbia in 1994 and has been its secretary-general since that time.[1] In April 2012, she represented the organization in supporting the Dignity at Work for Everyone project, pledging to fight for new jobs in Serbia while adhering to the European Union's standards on the rights of workers.[2]

She now lives in Belgrade.[3]

Political career

Vučković joined the DS on its formation in 1990 and was its secretary for international cooperation and secretary of the presidency of the party from 1991 to 1994. In 1996, she joined the breakaway Democratic Centre (Demokratski centar, DC). The DC participated in the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a coalition of parties opposed to Slobodan Milošević's administration, and provided support to the DOS government formed in 2001. From 2001 to 2003, Vučković served as an advisor on international cooperation in the government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (renamed as the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2003).

The Democratic Centre contested the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election on the electoral list of the DS, and Vučković received the 189th position.[4] The list won thirty-seven mandates, and she was not chosen as part of her party's assembly delegation. (From 2000 to 2011, parliamentary mandates were awarded to sponsoring parties or coalitions rather than to individual candidates, and it was common practice for the mandates to be distributed out of numerical order. Vučković could have been awarded a mandate despite her position, though in the event she was not.)[5] The Democratic Centre merged back into the Democratic Party in 2004, and Vučković became a member of the DS's executive board in the same year. She was elected to the Assembly of the City of Belgrade in the 2004 local elections.[6]

Member of the National Assembly

Vučković received the fifty-first position on the DS's electoral list in the 2007 Serbian parliamentary election. The list won sixty-four mandates, and, on this occasion, she was awarded a mandate.[7][8] The DS formed an unstable coalition government with the rival Democratic Party of Serbia (Demokratska stranka Srbije, DSS) and other parties following the election, and Vučković served in the assembly as a supporter of the administration. On 25 June 2007, she was chosen as a substitute member of Serbia's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE),[9] where she served as a member of the Socialist Group.[10]

She was given the thirty-second position on the DS's For a European Serbia coalition list in the 2008 parliamentary election and was awarded a mandate for a second term after the list won 102 seats.[11] After extended negotiations, the For a European Serbia coalition subsequently formed a new government with the Socialist Party of Serbia, and Vučković continued to serve on the government side. She also continued to serve in the PACE, being promoted to a full delegate on 11 April 2011.[12] On 23 January 2012, she was chosen as vice-president of the PACE.[13] She also served as the chair of Serbia's parliamentary friendship group with France and oversaw a meeting of parliamentarians from the two countries in Belgrade in April 2010; she noted that the visit provided an opportunity for the Serbian parliamentarians to review their country's priorities, one of the most important of which was joining the European Union.[14]

Serbia's electoral system was reformed in 2011, such that parliamentary mandates were awarded in numerical order to candidates on successful lists. Vučković received the twenty-seventh position on the DS's Choice for a Better Life list in the 2012 parliamentary election and was re-elected when the list won sixty-seven mandates.[15] The Socialist Party and the Serbian Progressive Party formed a new coalition government after the election, and the DS moved into opposition. The party subsequently became divided between supporters of former Serbian president Boris Tadić and supporters of Dragan Đilas, who replaced Tadić as leader in November 2012. Vučković was aligned with Tadić but, in a bid to ensure party unity, was chosen as a vice-president at the party conference that elected Đilas as leader.[16][17] In June 2013, she supported Dragan Šutanovac over Balša Božović for the leadership of the DS in Belgrade; Božović was chosen for the position.[18]

Vučković served as chair of the Serbian assembly's European integration committee during this sitting of parliament[19] and continued to serve in the PACE. In 2013, she submitted as report (adopted by the PACE) to deprive Ukrainian politician Serhiy Vlasenko of his mandate and recognize Andriy Shevchenko in his place.[20] In April 2014, she announced the PACE's plans to monitor the upcoming presidential election in Ukraine, indicating that it was important for the PACE delegation to visit as many regions of Ukraine as possible.[21]

Vučković was promoted to the third position on the DS's list in the 2014 parliamentary election and was re-elected, even as the list fell to only nineteen mandates.[22] Bojan Pajtić replaced Đilas as party leader later in the year, and Vučković was again chosen as a party vice-president.[23] She also continued to serve in the PACE and in June 2015 was chosen as a special rapporteur to Turkey, in which capacity she co-authored a report that was strongly critical of the functioning of democratic institutions in that country.[24][25]

She again received the third position on the DS's list in the 2016 parliamentary election and was re-elected to a fifth term in the assembly as the list won sixteen mandates.[26] She considered running for the leadership of the DS after the election, though she ultimately did not do so.[27] She was narrowly defeated in a bid for re-election as a DS vice-president in September 2016.[28] In the 2017 Serbian presidential election, she was an early supporter of Saša Janković's candidacy; Janković was ultimately endorsed by the DS and finished second in the contest.[29]

Vučković's term in the PACE ended on 9 October 2016.[30] She is currently a member of the assembly's foreign affairs committee and European integration committee; a deputy member of three committees (the committee on constitutional and legislature issues; the committee on the judiciary, public administration, and local self-government; and the committee on labour, social issues, social inclusion, and poverty reduction); a member of Serbia's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean; the head of Serbia's parliamentary friendship group with France; and a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with Croatia, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.[31]

Vučković was also elected to the municipal assembly of Savski Venac in the 2016 local elections after receiving the third position on her party's list in the area.[32][33] She received the twelfth position on a coalition electoral list led by the DS in the 2018 Belgrade City Assembly election; on this occasion, the list did not cross the electoral threshold to win representation.[34]

References
  1. NATAŠA VUČKOVIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 17 July 2018.
  2. "Sinteza - Daily Overview, Top Business Stories, Apr 4, 2012," Emerging Markets Broker Reports Central Eastern Europe, 5 April 2012.
  3. NATASA VUCKOVIC, National Assembly of Serbia, accessed 17 July 2018.
  4. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (ДЕМОКРАТСКА СТРАНКА - БОРИС ТАДИЋ) Archived 2017-07-26 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 5 April 2017.
  5. Serbia's Law on the Election of Representatives (2000) stipulated that parliamentary mandates would be awarded to electoral lists (Article 80) that crossed the electoral threshold (Article 81), that mandates would be given to candidates appearing on the relevant lists (Article 83), and that the submitters of the lists were responsible for selecting their parliamentary delegations within ten days of the final results being published (Article 84). See Law on the Election of Representatives, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 35/2000, made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 28 February 2017.
  6. NATAŠA VUČKOVIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 17 July 2018.
  7. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (Демократска странка - Борис Тадић) Archived 2018-04-30 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 5 April 2017.
  8. 14 February 2007 legislature, National Assembly of Serbia, accessed 17 July 2018.
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  10. "PACE confirms Shevchenko's credentials in Ukrainian delegation," Ukrainian National News Agency, 25 April 2013.
  11. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 11. маја 2008. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (ЗА ЕВРОПСКУ СРБИЈУ - БОРИС ТАДИЋ) Archived 2018-04-30 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 5 April 2017.
  12. Nataša VUČKOVIĆ, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, accessed 17 July 2018.
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  14. "Serbian, French MPs discuss EU accession, Kosovo, ICTY, bilateral ties," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 12 April 2010 (Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1717gmt 12 Apr 10).
  15. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине, 6. мај 2012. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (ИЗБОР ЗА БОЉИ ЖИВОТ- БОРИС ТАДИЋ) Archived 2017-09-11 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 26 January 2017.
  16. "Serbian ex-president said to step down as Democratic Party leader," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 28 October 2012 (Source: Vecernje novosti website, Belgrade, in Serbian 25 Oct 12).
  17. "New leader vows to reform opposition party, draft plan for Serbia's recovery," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 26 November 2012 (Source: Radio B92 text website, Belgrade, in English 26 Nov 12).
  18. "Serbian paper views 'deep rift' in Democratic Party over Belgrade branch," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 2 June 2013 (Source: Vecernje novosti website, Belgrade, in Serbian 29 May 13).
  19. "Poll shows support for Serbia's membership of EU," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 1 September 2013 (Source: Politika website, Belgrade, in Serbian 26 Aug 13).
  20. "PACE confirms Shevchenko's credentials in Ukrainian delegation," Ukrainian National News Agency, 25 April 2013.
  21. "Fifty PACE members go to Ukraine to observe elections," Interfax: Ukrainian General Newswire, 7 April 2014.
  22. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 16. и 23. марта 2014. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (СА ДЕМОКРАТСКОМ СТРАНКОМ ЗА ДЕМОКРАТСКУ СРБИЈУ) Archived 2018-05-06 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 March 2017.
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  25. "PACE adopts resolution condemning situation with functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey," ARMINFO News, 23 June 2016.
  26. Избори за народне посланике 2016. године » Изборне листе (ЗА ПРАВЕДНУ СРБИЈУ – ДЕМОКРАТСКА СТРАНКА (НОВА, ДСХВ, ЗЗС)) Archived 2018-04-27 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 March 2017.
  27. "Vučković: Razmišljam o kandidaturi za predsednika DS", Blic (Source: Tanjug), 31 May 2016, accessed 17 July 2018.
  28. "Nataša Vučković: I dalje ću biti posvećena Demokratskoj stranci", Blic (Source: Beta), 26 September 2016, accessed 17 July 2018.
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  31. NATASA VUCKOVIC, National Assembly of Serbia, accessed 17 July 2018.
  32. NATAŠA VUČKOVIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 17 July 2018.
  33. Službeni list, City of Belgrade, 13 April 2016, p. 51.
  34. Изборне листе (4. ДА ОСЛОБОДИМО БЕОГРАД – Демократска странка (ДС), Социјалдемократска странка (СДС), Нова странка (НОВА) и Зелена еколошка партија – Зелени (ЗЕП – Зелени), City of Belgrade (Election 2018), accessed 19 July 2018.
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