Minister Kuburović Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia discuss Chapter 23

Today, Justice Minister Nela Kuburović met with Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, H.E. Sem Fabrizi to discuss the activities with the Ministry of Justice had conducted to fulfil Chapter 23 Action Plan measures.

Minister Kuburović said that the public debate on the Draft Corruption Prevention Act had been opened. The Minister explained that the Draft had been consolidated with GRECO experts’ recommendations and that, once it was adopted, Serbia will have met one of GRECO recommendations in full. The Minister added that training on the application of the new Data Protection Act – which had been fully harmonised with the relevant EU directives and adopted at the end of 2018 – would be organised in cooperation with the Office of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance.

As for the greatest challenge faced currently, the Minister mentioned the revision of the Chapter 23 Action Plan. She noted that the revision was not being driven by any request of the European Commission, but rather a real necessity to adjust the Action Plan’s deadlines to the new circumstances, explaining that only the reporting of future amendments to the Plan had been defined together with the European Commission the year before. The Minister added that comments to first draft of the revised Action Plan by experts and the civil society were being collected, and then submitted together with the draft to the European Commission for recommendations. Ambassador Fabrizi commended the extension of deadline for the submission of comments to the draft, saying it was important to include all the relevant parties. “Once Brussels has given its recommendations, the Ministry of Justice will initiate a public debate in accordance with the Government Rulebook, bearing in mind that broad consultations for the existing working draft is on-going”, the Minister said.

Ambassador Fabrizi and Minister Kuburović also discussed the amendments to judicial provisions of the Constitution adoption process – the draft version of which, as prepared by the Ministry of Justice, had received positive feedback from the Venice Commission. The Minister said she believed the Government’s initiative to amend the Constitution would be discussed in the regular spring session of the National Assembly, and that, should the parliamentarians adopt it by a two-thirds majority vote, the Committee on Constitutional and Legislative Matters would initiate the public debate on the final draft of the amendments.