Legal provisions for mandatory referendums at national level

Serbia, Constitution 2006, accessed 20 December 2021

Article 203: Proposal to amend the Constitution and adoption of the amendment to the Constitution

[...] The National Assembly shall be obliged to put forward the act on amending the Constitution in the republic referendum to have it endorsed, in cases when the amendment of the Constitution pertains to the preamble of the Constitution, principles of the Constitution, human and minority rights and freedoms, the system of authority, proclamation the state of war and emergency, derogation from human and minority rights in the state of emergency or war or the proceedings of amending the Constitution.

Serbia, Law on the Referendum and the People’s Initiative (December 2021) [in Serbian], accessed 20 December 2021

Mandatory Referendum

Article 13. The assembly shall render a decision on calling a referendum on an issue determined by the Constitution or the law, and/or the statutes of the autonomous province or local self-government unit as an issue on which decision shall be made by citizens in a referendum.

When stipulated that citizens shall vote on the endorsement of an act adopted in the assembly in a referendum referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, the assembly shall render a decision on calling a referendum concurrently with the adoption of the act in question.

If stipulated by the Constitution or the law that the assembly’s decision shall be preceded by a referendum, the assembly shall render a decision on calling a referendum, if possible, at the same session when establishing proposal of the decision on an issue referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, and no later than 30 days from the day of establishing such proposal.

In accordance with the Constitution, a referendum is mandatory for changing the Constitution and for establishing, abolishing and changing the borders of the territory of an autonomous province or a local self-government unit.