“Courts pronounced over 300 final judgments during the first year of the implementation of the Act on Organisation and Jurisdiction of State Authorities in the Suppression of Organised Crime, Terrorism and Corruption, while those prosecuted include judges, heads of public enterprises and institutions as well as assistant ministers. These data clearly show that Serbia is unambiguously committed to combating grand corruption”, Justice Minister Nela Kuburović pointed out today at a meeting with Christian Danielsson, Director-General of the EC Directorate-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.

Minister Kuburović said that four regional anti-corruption centres had been established in March last year and that good results had been achieved in the first year of the application of new legal solutions. She added that the Organised Crime Prosecutor's Office had also performed well as regards money laundering, in close cooperation with EU countries, such as Italy.

While speaking of sincere commitment to combating corruption, the Minister indicated that the Government had allocated significant funds for strengthening the capacities of courts and prosecutors' offices by means of increasing the number of judges, prosecutors and those working in special departments prosecuting corruption-related crime, and through the improvement of e-Justice, which shortens procedures and data exchange.

Kuburović also mentioned that the day before the Ministry of Justice had published a draft Property Origin and Special Tax Act (which was announced for the first time more than 15 years ago) adding that the current Government was the first to demonstrate a true political will to adopt such piece of legislation.

The Justice Minister said that the Lobbying Act had also been adopted, which is to become applicable this year. On the other hand, the public debate phase is underway for the draft Corruption Prevention Act (new name for the Anti-Corruption Agency Act). The Minister stated that the draft Act strengthened the independence of the Anti-Corruption Agency, expanded its competencies, and laid down a more transparent way of choosing the Director and members of the Agency's Board.

Daniellson stressed that a consistent fight against corruption was very important not only from the perspective of the judiciary and the rule of law, but also in terms of the impact of corruption on a country’s economy and industry. He underlined that he supported Serbia in its path towards the EU and expressed appreciation for what it had done to date. He concluded that the European Commission and Serbia were partners on that journey.