Serbia is implementing important reforms in the field of justice

Justice Minister Nela Kuburović met today with Director for EU Policies at the German Federal Foreign Office Thomas Ossowski to discuss Chapter 23 reform activities. Ms Kuburović and Mr Ossowski concurred that Serbia was being asked to meet greater demands and higher standards on it path to joining the EU, and that Serbia was expected to do more than other member states which had most recently joined the EU had had to do.

Although Ossowski saw Serbia as the future part of the EU, he said that Serbia needed to implement many more reforms in which Germany would provide support. He added that Serbia was a very important partner to Germany.

Minister Kuburović stressed that significant reform steps had been made in the field of judiciary as well as fight against corruption and fundamental rights. She added that the process of amending the justice sector provisions of the Constitution had commenced – process aimed at strengthening the independence of the judiciary and the prosecution as well as introducing a new way of electing holders of judicial offices from which all involvement of the Government and the National Assembly will be excluded.

On the topic of fight against corruption, the Justice Minister said that as of 1 March 2018, new statutes had been in force which formed special anti-corruption departments in high courts and high prosecution offices a part of four regional centres. She explained that owing to the new system, the courts had passed over 500 convicting decisions, some of which involved high-ranking officials. The Minister stressed that the parliamentarians were reviewing the draft Corruption Prevention Act the adoption of which would make Serbia fully compliant with two GRECO recommendations - GRECO having declared in its last report that Serbia was no longer a “globally unsatisfactory” country in terms of fight against corruption.

As for fundamental rights, Minister Kuburović highlighted that the application of the Free Legal Aid Act would start this year; a statute for which Serbia had been waiting over 10 years.

At the end of the meeting, the German Ambassador said he believed Serbia held a key role and that it ought to serve as an example to other countries in the region of how to conduct reforms in the EU-integration process.