Updated: February 10, 2015
Serbian delegation comprised from representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Čedomir Backović, Deputy Minister for European Integration and International Projects and Head of the Negotiating Group for Chapter 23, Radomir Ilić, state secretary, Vladimir Vukićević, consultant for human rights, Supreme court of cassation, Dragomir Milojević, president of SCC and Mirjana Puzović, head of office of president of SCC, High judiciary council, Majda Kršikapa,
Secretary of HJC and CSO YUKOM, president Milan Antonijević took part in two day work visit to World Bank and DG NEAR.
On the first day of visit Serbian delegation held meeting with representatives of DG NEAR, precisely with Ferran Myriam , head of unit for Serbia, Sabine Zwaenepoel, Makridis Christos deputy chief of unit for Serbia, Dita Kudelova and F. Marchall from unit for Serbia. Special Mission of the Republic of Serbia in Brussels also took part in the meeting composed of: A.Bošković i J. Jevtović. Main topic of the meeting was state of play of draft of Action plan for chapter 23 and state of play of supplements and amendments to the Criminal code, Law on data protection, and status of draft Law on free legal aid and Action plan for minorities. DG NEAR representatives expressed their satisfaction with progress made in second draft of AP for Ch. 23 and expressed their expectation that third draft will indeed be the final one. However DG NEAR expressed their concern about lack of substantial data regarding national minorities part of AP CH 23, and also advised our side to take once more closer look of all deadlines in AP having in mind negative Montenegro experience with having overly ambitious deadlines. For our part Mr. Backovic informed DG NEAR about progress made regarding working group tasked to draft AP
for national minorities but also tasked to provide some substantial data for national minorities part of AP CH 23 in order to overcome above stated concern with lack of precise measures. Mr. Radomir Ilic informed DG NEAR about progress made with supplements and amendments to the Criminal code in part dealing with economical crime and provided additional data on actual CH 23, and also advised our side to take once more closer look of all deadlines in AP having in mind negative Montenegro experience with having overly ambitious deadlines. For our part Mr. Backovic informed DG NEAR about progress made regarding working group tasked to draft AP for national minorities but also tasked to provide some substantial data for national minorities part of AP CH 23 in order to overcome above stated concern with lack of precise measures. Mr. Radomir Ilic informed DG NEAR about progress made with supplements and amendments to the Criminal code in part dealing with economical crime and provided additional data on actual goal of these amendments. DG NEAR expressed concern about impact on lawyers strike on backlog reduction plan, but our side explained that there is no cause for concern having in mind overall size of backlog.
On the second day Serbian delegation took part in presentation of functional review of Serbian judiciary at the premises of World Bank in Brussels held by World banks public sector specialists Klaus Decker, Srdjan Svircev and Georgia Herley. Ahead of presentation Mr. Milojeviç expressed gratitude to the MTDF which financed functional review which he deemed as a very good analysis of flaws in functioning of Serbian judiciary. Mr. Backovic confirmed satisfaction with the high level of quality of functional review and stated that Serbian judiciary certainly needed such a through analysis in order to achieve full compliance with high EU standards. He also stated that findings of functional review will certainly find its place in AP CH 23 and in revised National judiciary reform strategy. World Bank experts during the presentation focused on the methodology of research, major obstacles they have in countered during research and also explained how such a review can be prepared for almost every country.
