Minister of Justice Nela Kuburović attended today’s ceremony marking the commencement of
the renovation works on the Judicial Academy (JARS) building in Belgrade. After the
renovation, the building will have 12 state-of-the-art training rooms, special forensics rooms,
interpreters’ room and a courtroom for trial simulations.


Minister Kuburović noted that JARS had faced many challenges to its work in its near-10-year
existence, but that it managed to adapt quickly. She explained that in that time, the Academy had
justified the trust given to it, primarily with the trainings it had been holding for those holding
judicial office. “There are some examples of how the Academy dealt with its challenges,
most notably the training on the application of the Whistle-Blowers’ Protection Act, the
Protection of the Right to Trial within Reasonable Time Act, which were novel to our
justice system.

There was also the training on the Domestic Violence Prevention Act which
over 1,000 judges, prosecutors and police officers completed. Together with JARS and
through IPA Project, in 2013 we prepared a training for all who acted in accordance with
the Organisation and Competence of Government Authorities in Fighting Organised
Crime, Terrorism and Corruption Act“, the Justice Minister highlighted. She added that in
2017 and 2018, more than 20,000 training participants attended JARS and over 800 educational
events were held.


The Justice Minister noted that over time JARS’ purview expanded to today not only being
responsible for training judicial office holders, but also for training public bailiffs and public
notaries. “Certainly, JARS’ importance lies in the strengthening of judicial independence,
expertise and efficiency, as it has been identified in Chapter 23 Action Plan“, the Minister
said, adding that training would in fact be one of the criterion based on which judges’
performances would be evaluated as well as the impact of JARS’ training programme and the
trainees’ expertise on the quality and the skills of judicial office holders they ought to possess.
Minister Kuburović stressed the Ministry of Justice would continue working on improving
JARS’ capacity and thanked the EU Delegation to Serbia for the EUR 3 million allocated for the
building renovation.

Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Sem Fabrizi stated that JARS’ building was very important
because of the future function it was going to perform. Fabrizi explained that the objective of the
full renovation project (with refurbishment and adaptation included) which the EU Delegation to
Serbia was funding through IPA so that the quality of justice brought would be improved by
strengthening JARS’ infrastructure.

JARS Director Nenad Vujić commented that the complete building refurbishment would be
conducted in line with the European standards owing to the efforts of the Ministry of Justice and
the EU Delegation. He also said that he hoped the building would open the following year, i.e.
that ‘the building which dates to 1925 would be transported to 21 st century, while retaining its
beauty’. He concluded by saying that the new JARS building would improve the work of the
judiciary, both in terms of expertise and efficiency.