Miroljub Labus

Miroljub Labus Мирољуб Лабус
Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia
In office 3 March 2004 – 3 May 2006
Prime Minister	Vojislav Koštunica
Preceded by	Nebojša Čović Žarko Korać Dušan Mihajlović Jožef Kasa Miodrag Isakov Čedomir Jovanović
Succeeded by	Ivana Dulić-Marković
Personal details
Born	(1947-02-28) February 28, 1947 Mala Krsna, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia
Political party	G17 Plus (2002–2006) Democratic Party (1990–1997)
Residence(s)	Belgrade, Serbia
Alma mater	University of Belgrade
Profession	Economist

Miroljub Labus (Serbian Cyrillic: Мирољуб Лабус) (born 28 February 1947, Mala Krsna, FPR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian economist and politician. Currently he is a University of Belgrade professor, lecturing political economy at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law. He is the owner of consulting firm Belox Advisory Service.

He was the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia from March 2004, serving under PM Vojislav Koštunica, but resigned on May 3, 2006, after EU suspended enlargement talks with Serbia, over Ratko Mladić. Labus also resigned from the position of President of G17 Plus.

Early life and education

Labus was born in Mala Krsna, near Smederevo, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia. He graduated law in 1970 from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law. This was followed by two postgraduate qualifications in economics.

Academic and administrative career

He began his career in academia as a university professor. In 1983, he was a Fulbright lecturer on the topic of Participation and Self-Management Systems. He has also been a guest lecturer at Cornell University.

Labus was a senior adviser at the Federal Statistics Bureau (Savezni zavod za statistiku) in Belgrade between 1986 and 1994. Since 1993, he has been a researcher at Belgrade's Economics Institute. He edited the Federal Bureau of Statistics's Economic Trend publication from 1990 to 1996, and the Belgrade Economics Institute's Economic Barometer from 1994 to 2000. Labus has also been involved with the National Bank of Yugoslavia and World Bank. His great-nephew is the star athlete-student Matt Labus.

Political career

Already somewhat politically involved as a macroeconomic policy adviser at the SFR Yugoslavia's federal government, in 1990 university professor Labus joined the recently established Democratic Party (DS).

Democratic Party

In 1992 Labus got elected as MP to the FR Yugoslavia's federal parliament. While in this role, he was also a member of the parliamentary Monetary Policy Committee. In 1994, he was promoted to Vice-President of the Democratic Party, under Zoran Đinđić. Labus held the position until 1997.

G17 Plus

In 1999, he became President of the Administrative Board of the G17 Plus movement. It was then a lobby group focused on encouraging economic reforms within Serbia. G17 Plus soon become a powerful lobby group, with significant public support. In 2000, he left the board of G17 Plus, taking up a position as Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia and Minister for International Economic Relations (in the federal government following the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević).

During the leadup to the fall 2002 presidential elections in Serbia, it became apparent that then-Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić did not have the appeal to match Koštunica, who had switched from the federal parliament to the state parliament. Đinđić agreed to back Koštunica's former ally, Labus, as an alternative candidate. In the resulting election, Koštunica defeated Labus, but as the election did not gain the required 50% voter turnout, the result was declared void. As such, Labus continued on in his position for another year.

Labus continued working with G17 Plus, and in late 2002, he began the process of transforming the lobby group into a full-fledged centrist political party, becoming its President. After the elections of December 2003, Labus and his party formed a minority coalition with the Democratic Party of Serbia and several other minor parties, in order to keep ultra-nationalist Tomislav Nikolić out of power. As a result, he retained both his deputy prime ministership and his other ministries. In 2006, Labus resigned from the position of President of G17 Plus party and left politics.

Books

• Fundamentals of Economics, (1995, 1997) (Original: Osnovi ekonomije)
• Fundamentals of Political Economy, (with D. Šoškić) (1992) (Original: Osnovi političke ekonomije)
• Contemporary Political Economy (1990) (Original: Savremena politička ekonomija)
• General Equilibrium of Economy, (with D. Vujović) (1990) (Original: Opšta privredna ravnoteža)
• Social or Collective Ownership Rights (1987) (Original: Društvena ili kolektivna vlasnička prava)

External links

• "Delta nije monopolista". Press. 5 March 2008.
• Лабус ради за Мишковића, Politika, 7 March 2008