Businessmen requiring assessment of constitutionality of mandatory membership in CCIS – Call for boycott until court decision

The legal obligation of businessmen to be paying members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia is unconstitutional, claims the Association for Protection of Constitutionality and Legality.

The association has submitted an initiative to the Constitutional Court for the assessment of constitutionality of contested provisions of the Law on Chambers, which comes into effect on January 1, 2017, and which prescribes that all businessmen should pay 0.19% of the gross salary of their employees.

– The contested provisions are contrary to the constitutional right to remain outside any association and the constitutionally defined freedom of entrepreneurship, which excludes the possibility of this type of association and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, according to which membership in associations such as the CCIS, in which private-legal elements are dominant, may not be compulsory – emphasizes Savo Manojlovic, the president of the Association for Protection of Constitutionality and Legality.

The initiative has been joined by businessmen themselves. Milan Knezevic, the president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, has invited his colleagues to boycott membership payments until the Constitutional Court makes a statement.

– We will assess what our interests are ourselves and not be forced to be members of the CCIS, which hasn't supported businessmen since the breakout of the 2008 crisis nor raised a voice against increasing charges – points out Uros Momirovic, director general of Mona.

Predrag Sanader, entrepreneur, says that “if the state removes the possibility of choice, people like me won't have many reasons to stay in Serbia”.

Privredna komora Srbije

Mona d.o.o. Beograd

Srpska Asocijacija malih i srednjih preduzeća

membership in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia

CCIS

Association for Protection of Constitutionality and Legality

Constitutional Court

Law on Chambers

Constitution of Serbia

European Court of Human Rights

Savo Manojlovic

Milan Knezevic

Association of Small and Medium Enterprises

Uros Momirovic

Predrag Sanader