The Joint Council of Municipalities in Croatia (; ; abbr. ЗВО, ZVO) is an consultative sui generis non-governmental organization which constitutes a form of cultural self-government for seven municipalities with an ethnic Serb majority in eastern Croatia (eastern Slavonia and Baranya regions). The organization was established in the initial aftermath of the Croatian War of Independence as a part of the international community's efforts to peacefully settle the conflict in self-proclaimed Eastern Slavonia, Baranya and Western Syrmia. The establishment of the Joint Council of Municipalities was one of the explicit provisions of the Erdut Agreement which called upon the United Nations to establish its UNTAES transitional administration.
The Joint Council of Municipalities is not an autonomous administrative unit but a form of cultural autonomy in conformity with relevant Croatian and international law including provisions on local government cooperation. The body and some of its partners are actively pushing for formal legal recognition of Joint Council of Municipalities legal personality within the Constructional Act on the Rights of National Minorities with limited success. The proposed change aims to transform its current standing of a free association into a more transparently institutionalized one.
The Joint Council of Municipalities is the founding member of the Serb National Council, national coordination of the Serbs in Croatia.
History Background
During the Croatian War of Independence, a self-proclaimed Serb Autonomous Region SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia (Eastern Slavonia) was formed along the Danube river in eastern Croatia. SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia was ethnically cleansed of its non-Serb population and it became part of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina. Within the Republic of Serbian Krajina, Eastern Slavonia was geographically separated from the rest of the entity, preserved certain institutional specificity, and contrary to the rest of Krajina which aligned itself with Republika Srpska, Eastern Slavonia closely aligned its policy with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Several Serb military and political officials, including Milošević, were later indicted and in some cases jailed for war crimes committed during and after the conflict in Eastern Slavonia.
In the summer of 1995, the Croatian Army took control of the Republic of Serbian Krajina in operations Flash and Storm. The only area of Croatia that remained under Serb control was Eastern Slavonia. Contrary to Krajina, the international community under the United States leadership opposed military solution in Eastern Slavonia and insisted on reintegration based on preservation of the multi-ethnic character of the region. Opposition to a military solution was fueled by the need not to undermine peace efforts in Bosnia and by the humanitarian consequences of the previous two operations. Contrary to Krajina it was expected that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia would get involved in the conflict in Eastern Croatia potentially leading to further escalation.
After Croatian expression of readiness to intervene militarily, international community efforts and agreement of government in Belgrade local Serb leaders concluded that an agreement is a necessity if they do not want to face the same fate as those in the western parts of Krajina. Meanwhile, Slobodan Milošević and Franjo Tuđman reached a consensus via the Dayton Agreement and on 12 November, the Erdut Agreement ended the war in eastern Croatia. The transitional period was initiated in which the region was reintegrated and directly governed by the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium. It was one of the rare cases in which the UN created a protectorate and directly governed the region in question. As an ultimate arbiter in 1997, the UNTAES established predominantly Serb municipalities in the region.
The Erdut agreement guaranteed the Serbs "the highest level of internationally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms". The Serb community was given the right to "appoint a joint Council of Municipalities" basis on which the body was formed. The council was established in 1997 The council is one of the founding members of the Serb National Council.
History of the Municipal Cooperation in Croatia
Forms of the state-organized or free municipal organization were known in the Croatian legal system since the time of the Socialist Republic of Croatia within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The so-called communities of municipalities were established in the 1974 constitution as first-level administrative units within the republic. From 1986 their self-governing rights were partially limited. The concept of a free municipal association was used by Serb nationalists in Croatia at an early stage of the conflict in the formation of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina. At that time Croatian Serb politician Jovan Rašković argued for the creation of the "integral region" via the establishment of an Association of Municipalities. While the Croatian legal system at the time formally permitted such a form of municipal organization the move was perceived as highly controversial and led to some of the first clashes.
The idea of Serb municipal cooperation reappeared in Eastern Slavonia after the collapse of the Republic of Serbian Krajina. Croatian Government unequivocally refused some of the initial comments and proposals by the United States President Bill Clinton and Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith which included references to the previous Z-4 Plan proposal. This led to the abandonment of the idea of Serb territorial autonomy in the region. This limited future cooperation to inter-municipal forms of cooperation. As any such cooperation might have been perceived as antagonistic and controversial and therefore prevented, the right to establish a joint council of municipalities was explicitly included in the Erdut Agreement. In June 1996 civil society organizations from the region collected 50,000 signatures and on 28 July that same year, they organized demonstrations "For the Just Peace" in Vukovar in which they requested that the region remain one territorial unit with autonomous executive, legislative and judicial powers. In the second half of the year, they asked Transitional Administrator Jacques Paul Klein to keep the region as an Association of Serb Municipalities with executive powers.
In January 1997 expanded session of the regional Executive Council responded to the Croatian Letter of Intent by requesting the creation of a new Serb county and demilitarization of the region. Vojislav Stanimirović told to media from Belgrade that by dividing Serbs into two counties Croatia is trying to dilute political initiatives by the Serb community. This division led to demonstrations which reached their peak on 11 February when 12,000 gathered in Vukovar. Regional Assembly called the referendum on the territorial integrity of the region on 5 March 1997 with the reported turnout of 100,275 voters or 77.40% out of which 99.01% voted for the region to stay undivided within Croatia. UNTAES officials stated that the question asked in the referendum was never one option recognized in the Erdut Agreement. Later on, Vojislav Stanimirović met with Croatian President Franjo Tuđman where Stanimirović stated that "the best option would be a Serb county, but if neither Croatia nor the international community is willing to accept it then the formation of the council of Serb municipalities as planned in Erdut Agreement is the second-best option".
Formation Legal basis for the establishment of the Joint Council of Municipalities was provided in the article 12 of the Basic Agreement on the Region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia more commonly known as the Erdut Agreement. Signing of the agreement led to the establishment of the UN led transitional administration in the region. Signing of the agreement was welcomed in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1023 and the process it initiated was further elaborated in resolutions number 1025, 1037 and 1043.
Towards the end of the transitional administration Croatian Government addressed members of the United Nations Security Council on 13 January 1997 in the Letter of Intent of the Government of the Republic of Croatia in Regard to Finalization of Reintegration of Areas Under the Transitional Administration in local context more commonly known simply as the Letter of Intent. This letter was perceived as a precondition for successful end of the UNTAES mission's mandate and it was signed by then Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Kostović. In it Croatian Government reassured the United Nations Security Council of its intention to organize free and fair local elections in which Serbs and other ethnic communities in the region will be enabled to participate. Article 4 of the letter provided guarantees of proportional Serb participation in political life in Vukovar-Srijem and Osijek-Baranja counties on the basis of the Constitutional Act on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia (the first version of the act adopted in 1991) and the Law on Local Government and Self-Government. Article 4 state that the Serb community in the areas which were under the UNTAES administration will form the Joint Council of Municipalities. The letter state the intention to hold regular meeting between Council's representatives and the President of Croatia each four months.
The founding Charter of the organization was signed by Jure Radić and Miloš Vojnović on 15 July 1997 at the Osijek Airport in the presence of UNTAES Head Jacques Paul Klein. In early August the president of Committee for Civic, Human and Minority Rights, Branko Jurišić, complained to representatives of the European Union Monitoring Mission that the council had not been registered in Zagreb although it had already begun to carry out most of its tasks on the ground. This condition would last until the end of UNTAES mission in 1998.
Contemporary period The 31st Plenary Meeting Venice Commission on 20–21 June 1997 adopted its Memorandum on the revision of the Croatian constitutional law of Human Rights and Rights of Minorities in which it recommended "inclusion of elements of the "Letter of intent of the Government of the Republic of Croatia on the peaceful reintegration of the region under transitional administration" in the Revised Constitutional Law". Commission expressed its opinion that revised Constitutional Act should:
Already before the end of the UNTAES mission on 15 January 1998 Croatian Parliament suspended implementation of certain elements of the Constitutional Law on Human Rights and Freedoms and Rights of National and Ethnic Communities or Minorities in the Republic of Croatia related to territorial autonomy of the Autonomous Districts of Knin and Glina. In that respect the law was not fully in force and both the Government and the Venice Commission favored introduction of a new constitutional act whereby the commission recommended that “The rights of national minorities acquired by international agreements before the date this constitutional act takes effect may not be restricted or changed by this Constitutional Act”.