Surveyors Demand Removal of Minister Sofronijevic
Serbia's Association of Geodetic Organizations has asked Prime Minister Djuro Macut to remove Construction Minister Aleksandra Sofronijevic, citing a disputed clause in a bill now before parliament.
The Association of Geodetic Organizations of Serbia, known in the profession as Geoudruzenje, has demanded the removal of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Aleksandra Sofronijevic. The request was addressed to Prime Minister Djuro Macut, carries the reference number 1-19/2026 and is dated August 13, 2026.
According to the association, the document was formally submitted and registered with the Government of Serbia. Copies went to the President of the Republic, the Speaker of the National Assembly, parliamentary groups and professional organizations, which took the removal request well beyond a single ministry.
The association points to consistently inadequate legislation in three areas: illegal construction, property registration and professional jurisdiction. The immediate trigger, however, is a single provision already sitting in front of lawmakers.
What the disputed clause says
The provision in question belongs to the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Special Conditions for Registering Real Estate Rights. The Government of Serbia submitted it to the National Assembly on August 7, 2026, and it remains on the assembly’s list of bills currently in procedure.
The disputed clause would let architectural and civil engineers, not just surveyors, prepare land survey reports. Work that has until now belonged to the surveying profession would open up to two related fields.
Geoudruzenje wants the clause struck from the bill. In its place, the association proposes wording that clearly assigns survey reports to surveying organizations, meaning licensed surveying professionals. It calls the government’s proposed wording technically, systemically and professionally unacceptable.
In the same document, the association also asked for a greater role for the surveying profession in drafting regulations that govern survey work, the land registry and geospatial data. It further seeks a review of existing legislative policy on illegal construction and property registration, not just a fix to one clause.
Why does the land survey report matter?
A land survey report is the technical document that lets the real estate cadastre record a change on the ground: a new building, a parcel split, a shifted boundary. Who is allowed to prepare it is therefore not only a question of professional title, but also one of access to the work and accountability for what enters the public record.
Surveying organizations have spent recent years going through certification for digital survey reports and working within the module the Republic Geodetic Authority (RGA) made mandatory for submissions. The profession paid for that shift through training, licensing and equipment, which is why it sees a wider pool of people allowed to prepare survey reports as a change of rules mid game.
A week when three moves lined up
The removal request is not an isolated event. It is the third move in a single week.
- August 6: The government removed Borko Draskovic as director of the Republic Geodetic Authority after 11 years in the post and named Dalibor Babic acting director.
- August 7: The bill reached the parliamentary procedure.
- August 11: Geoudruzenje took part in the public hearing on the Draft Law on Land Consolidation, another piece of legislation that touches surveying work.
Two days after that hearing, the removal request against Minister Sofronijevic was registered with the government.
Who decides on removing a minister?
The decision to remove a cabinet member rests with the National Assembly, acting on a proposal from the prime minister. A professional association’s request carries no such weight on its own. It is an initiative addressed to Macut, and it is up to him whether to act on it at all.
The fate of the disputed clause is a separate matter, decided in the Assembly. Lawmakers can file amendments before the bill comes to a vote, so only the session itself will show whether the provision on architectural and civil engineers survives in the final text.
The Association of Geodetic Organizations of Serbia was founded on May 16, 2006, and marked two decades of work this past May. According to figures it published itself in September 2024, it counted 183 surveying organizations with 665 employed professionals. That figure is what sets this request apart from a complaint filed by a single firm or engineer.
