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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Adopted measures aim to prevent tragedies like yesterday's

Belgrade, 4 May 2023

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic stated that today the government adopted a whole set of measures with the aim of ensuring that cases such as yesterday's tragedy at the Vladislav Ribnikar primary school never happen again, assessing that the tragedy would not have been prevented even if those measures existed before this case.

In a statement for Pink Television, she opposed certain claims that the system failed. I do not deny that there are many problems, they are the problems of the modern world and problems of many countries, it is up to us to see if we can do something better and provide additional support to schools, teachers and everyone who needs it, the Prime Minister stated.

She said that the government will also form a Council for the Prevention of Peer Violence, stressing that this topic has been worked on long before.

According to her, meetings were held with trade unions, talks were held with NGOs and discussions about amendments to the Law on Education, regulations on how to fight against peer violence in schools were changed, and the platform "I'll Guard You" was created.

She emphasised that this morning the Ministry of Justice forwarded and started consultations with the European Commission regarding changes to the Criminal Code in order to reduce the age limit for criminal responsibility of minors from 14 to 12.

We have examples in the European Union where the age limit is lower than 14, which is 8 in Greece or 10 in France, she added.

Speaking about shooting ranges, the Prime Minister reiterated that the Ministry of the Interior should carry out strict control over the work of all shooting ranges, and that, in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, amendments to the regulations should be prepared within a month, and that access to shooting ranges for minors should be explicitly prohibited.

It will be especially difficult to implement the measure concerning the improvement of children's safety on the internet for technological reasons, but also because of many organisations and individuals who will characterise it as an attack on freedom of speech, she assessed.