Dissemination Events in Novi Sad and Kragujevac

Presentations in Novi Sad February 4, and Kragujevac, February 5, 2015

In cooperation with the Supreme Court of Cassation the World Bank Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Justice Sector Support (MDTF-JSS) organized events to launch the Serbia Judicial Functional Review on February 4^th in Novi Sad and February 5^th, 2015 in Kragujevac.

Mr. Novica Peković, presidents of the Appeal Court in Novi Sad and Ms. Dubravka Damjanović, president of the Appeal Court in Kragujevac hosted the Functional Review dissemination events.

Mr. Klaus Decker, Task Team Leader of the MDTF-JSS, Ms. Georgia Harley, Justice Sector Specialist and Mr. Srdjan Svirčev, Public Sector Specialist, presented on behalf of the Judicial Functional Review team. At the opening of the events participants were addressed by Mr. Dragomir Milojević, president of the Supreme Court of Cassation, through video clip.

Mr. Decker explained the process and methodology of performance framework, data gathering, data generation, consultation and preparation of the Functional Review as well as its objectives and scope. Review objectives were to create a data-rich baseline for Serbia’s accession negotiations under Chapter 23, provide analytic input for opening benchmarks under Chapter 23 and enable Serbia and the EU to measure progress in reforms. Ms. Harley and Mr. Svirčev outlined the Functional Review’s main findings of external and internal performance of justice system and recommendations for improvement of efficiency, quality and access of justice service delivery as well as strengthening the inner workings of the justice system. The presentation can be accessed here.

After presentations rich discussion took place. Judges and prosecutors were interested in improvement of court fee collection, introduction of prosecutors’ fee having in mind costs generated by the prosecutorial investigation, strengthening of financial management flexibility, introduction of practical solutions in service delivery, increasing skills of administrative/support staff, procurement of proper ICT equipment and changes of the human resource structure in the judiciary.

The presentations were attended by more than 100 stakeholders, including court presidents, public prosecutors, judges and deputy prosecutors from the jurisdiction of Novi Sad and Kragujevac Appeal Courts.

For the MDTF-JSS, the next step will be further dissemination of the Functional Review and presentations throughout Serbia to all relevant stakeholders, including law students.

You can access the Serbia Judicial Functional Review here. The Functional Review was funded by the MDTF-JSS, which has been established with generous contributions from the EU Delegation in Serbia, the United Kingdom Department for International Development, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland.