MINISTER SELAKOVIĆ AT MEETING WITH STEFANO SANNINO AND VINCENT DEGERT

The Minister of Justice and Public Administration Nikola Selaković met with the Director-General for Enlargement of the EU, Stefano Sannino, and the Head of Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia, Vincent Degert. The main topic of the meeting was development of strategies - for judiciary reform and anti-corruption, which will be in the parliament procedure in March, but will also directly influence the new report of the European Commission on Serbia's progress in thejudiciary sector.

Minister Selaković introduced the main guidelines of both national strategies to Mr Sannino and Mr Degert and pointed out that the Strategy for Combating Corruption was a horizontal strategy including a great number of sectors and stakeholders, while on the other hand the Judiciary Reform Strategy was focused on one field, and that is the judiciary system of Serbia.  Also, Selaković informed them that many state authorities, institutions, non-governmental organisations were involved in the development of these strategies, i.e. everyone who could contribute to their development and creation of a strong basis for the rule of law and good functioning of the justice system as well as any other sector in Serbia.

Mr Sannino

During meeting Mr Selaković pointed out that the working group for the preparation of the National Judicial Reform Strategy started at the same time to work on the Action Plan, which shall control the enforceability and reality of objectives and measures contained in the Strategy and directly correct them in the parts that were not properly defined. In March, said the minister, work on the Action Plan for the Fight against Corruption Strategy is expected to start.

Mr Sannino and Mr Degert stressed their satisfaction with the work of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration, particularly by supporting system approach in carrying out the necessary measures to correct the negative effects of the judiciary reform. They emphasized the importance of the fight against corruption and crime, noting that it requires strong cooperation among government authorities, as well as clear institutional division of responsibilities in such fight. Also, they added that the Ministry could always count on all necessary expert support from the EU in drawing up relevant documents that Serbia would adopt to improve the lives of its citizens and make progress towards the EU.