Today, Minister of Justice Nela Kuburović received the President of Italy’s Anti-Corruption National Authority Raffaele Cantone with whom she discussed anti-corruption cooperation between Serbia and Italy. Minister Kuburović and President Cantone noted that their respective countries had excellent justice sector cooperation and that it was most intensive when it came to fight against corruption and organised crime.

The Justice Minister recalled that Italy’s and Serbia’s Justice Ministers had signed a Cooperation Agreement in early 2017, which effectively improved information sharing between the two countries concerning all matters pertaining to countering corruption and organised crime. She added that not long after, a Memorandum on Cooperation was also concluded with Italy’s Finance Police, on the basis of which Serbian prosecutors and police officers commenced their professional training on corruption and organised crime countering at the beginning of 2018 in Italy. ‘Direct cooperation between Serbia’s Prosecutor’s Officer for Organised Crime and Italy’s National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor’s Office is necessary for the fight against transnational organised crime to be successful’, Minister Kuburović stressed, adding that such cooperation implied participation in joint investigation teams.

President Cantone noted the successful cooperation between the Serbian and the Italian anti-corruption agencies and that the two-year Twinning Project ‘Prevention and Fight against Corruption’ which concerned Serbia’s Anti-corruption Agency capacity-building, had given good results and had furthered the said cooperation. He stressed that Serbia was the first country to be invited to become a member of the Network of Corruption Prevention Authorities which had been set-up in October 2018 for the purpose of gathering and sharing data and good practices between institutions tasked with preventing and fighting corruption. The Network presently consists of over 15 countries and one of its two vice-presidents is the Director of Serbia’s Anti-Corruption Agency.

Minister Kuburović added that the Serbian Ministry of Justice had been dedicating efforts to both repressive and preventive anti-corruption mechanisms. She said that the new Corruption Prevention Bill (which was a new name for the Anti-Corruption Agency Act) would soon enter the parliamentary debate. She explained that all new pieces of legislation – aiming to expand the Agency’s authority and strengthen its independence - had been consolidated with the GRECO experts’ recommendations.

At the close of the meeting, the attendees concurred that Italy showed strong support to Serbia in joining the EU, as well as that the relations between the two countries had been exceptional, especially considering that 2019 would mark 140th anniversary of their diplomatic relations and 10th anniversary of their strategic partnership.