Legal provisions for direct democracy at the regional level

Serbia, Constitution 2006, accessed 20 December 2021

Article 182: Concept, establishment and territory of autonomous province

Autonomous provinces shall be autonomous territorial communities established by the Constitution, in which citizens exercise the right to the provincial autonomy.

In the Republic of Serbia, there are the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. The substantial autonomy of the Autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija shall be regulated by the special law which shall be adopted in accordance with the proceedings envisaged for amending the Constitution.

New autonomous provinces may be established, and already established ones may be revoked or merged following the proceedings envisaged for amending the Constitution.

The proposal to establish new, or revoke or merge the existing autonomous provinces shall be established by citizens in a referendum, in accordance with the Law.

Territory of autonomous provinces and the terms under which borders between autonomous provinces may be altered shall be regulated by the Law. Territory of autonomous provinces may not be altered without the consent of its citizens given in a referendum, in accordance with the Law.

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.

Subject of Provincial Referendum
Article 52. In a referendum called on the territory of the autonomous province or part of its territory (provincial referendum), citizens shall decide on issues  etermined by the statutes of the autonomous province and on issues falling within the competence of the assembly of the autonomous province determined by the decision of the assembly of the autonomous province made upon the request of the majority of the total number of all deputies or upon request submitted by not less than 30,000 voters with permanent residency in the territory of the autonomous province.
Issues determined by the statutes of the autonomous province as the competence of the assembly of the autonomous province, with the exception of the
issues determined under Article 48 of this Law, may be the subject of a provincial referendum.

Serbia is a unitary state, and thus there are no regional entities, except two autonomous provinces (Autonomna Pokrajina Vojvodina and Autonomna Pokrajina Kosovo-Metohija). Data for this question relates only to those two autonomous provinces.