Izvor: N1 televizija, 29.Okt.2018, 19:21 (ažurirano 02.Apr.2020.)
Justice Minister: Serbia accepts 70 % of legal experts ideas
Nela Kuburovic, Serbia’s Justice Minister, said on Monday that Belgrade had received an official opinion by the Venice Commission saying the country’s draft constitutional amendments were entirely in line with Commission’s recommendations, the Beta news agency reported.
In a meeting with Eduard Kukan, who chairs the European Parliament Delegation to the EU-Serbia Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee, Kuburovic said her Ministry’s primary and most challenging >> Pročitaj celu vest na sajtu N1 televizija << task was to draft the constitutional changes related to the judiciary.
She added that if adopted the changes would improve the independence and responsibility of the legal system in Serbia.
Kuburovic’s Ministry statement quoted Kukan as saying the next report on Serbia would mainly depend on Belgrade's progress in the rule of law.
Kuburovic said her Ministry had conducted “a wide consultative and inclusive process during two public debates and that it resulted in over 70 percent amendments suggested by legal experts.”
Earlier this month, members of the Association of Public Prosecutors and their Deputies, the Society of Judges, Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, Center for Judicial Research and Belgrade Centre for Human Rights warned that the depoliticisation of the judiciary was the critical reason for the constitutional changes.
They cautioned that the last draft went only under cosmetic changes, “to certain extent correcting some logical and technical mistakes,” but left room for political influence contrary to comments and advice from the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission.
Last Thursday, seven lawyers’ organisations refuted claims by the Justice Ministry that the Venice Commission passed a positive assessment of the latest version of amendments to the constitution.
Their joint statement said that the ministry posted memorandum from the Venice Commission Secretariat which included “a summary conclusion” on the draft amendments which were not a topic at the latest regular commission session.
The statement by the lawyers’ organisations said that the memorandum showed that ministry statement was wrong. The lawyers’ organisations called the ministry to send the latest draft to the Venice Commission and invited the Commission to make a statement about the false claims.
Kuburovic on Monday also said that since March 1 Serbia started implementing new legal measures in fighting corruption, saying that “over 250 indictments and 152 verdicts was an excellent result in such a short time.” Kuburovic added that it would need a year of implementation to see the real effects of the new measures.
However, Belgrade was given the October 31 deadline to send additional material to GRECO, since that CoE body assessed in May 2015 that the country had regressed in fighting corruption and that it had received 13 recommendations, seven of which it had partially honoured, while six had not observed at all.
That resulted in GRECO’s 2017 report which said Serbia regressed in fighting corruption and that it would launch a procedure against Belgrade for ignoring the recommendations. Kukan on Monday said that the Justice Ministry had an important role, particularly now since Serbia was amid the accession negotiations with the EU.
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