Most Serbian Cabinet Meetings Now on Phone

Owing to the heavy snowfall, Serbia's government declared a state of emergency across the the entire territory on Sunday. The decsion was made at a cabinet meeting conducted by telephone.

It was one of 421 government decisions made by phone since July 2008, when the Democrat-led government took power.

Milivoje Mihajlovic, director of the government's Bureau for Information, said the number of such telephone cabinet sessions was big but they saved a lot of time and had exactly the same same status as regular meetings.

"All items adopted at a telephone session undergo the same procedure as those adopted at a regular session," Mihajlovic explained.

The General Secretariat of the government is in charge of organising such sessions. Before voting, all cabinet members have access to the materials on the agenda, as is the case with regular meetings, Mihajlovic added.

Ministers use telephones with protected frequences so that nobody can eavesdrop the meetings. All ministers have cell phones and numbers at which they have to be available 24 hours a day.

According to the government's statute, telephone sessions can be held in various "reasonable and emergency situations".

But the practice seems to have become more of a rule rather than an exception lately, even when it comes to major decisions.

Two weeks ago, ministers decided by phone to buy back US Steel, an ailing company based in Smederevo, for a dollar.

In January, the government sacked Sreten Ugricic as head of the National Library by phone after he voiced support for a Montenegrin official accused of disparaging Serbia.

Other recent examples of government decisions made over the phone include: changes to the criminal code, a law on rehabilitation, a law on budgets and matters to do with IMF negotiations.