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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Modern European laws big success for Justice Ministry

Belgrade, 25 December 2006

Serbian Minister of Justice Zoran Stojkovic said today that the adoption of modern European laws and the National Judicial Reform Strategy are among the biggest achievements of this ministry in 2006.

Zoran Stojkovic

Summing up results of Ministry’s work this year, the Minister said that all conditions have been created for good, efficient and independent work of courts. He also noted that the legal framework has been made, that courts have been equipped and adapted.

Stojkovic listed five laws which were adopted at the Ministry’s initiative, namely the Law on rehabilitation, Law on amnesty, Law on criminal proceedings, Law on training of justices, public attorneys, their deputies and assistants as well as the Law amending the Law on organisation of courts.

He stressed that numerous by-laws have been adopted as well and recalled that there are 14 draft laws in the parliamentary procedure at the moment.

Stojkovic added that another 13 bills are being prepared, including the bills on public notary, criminal responsibility of legal persons, legal assistance, public organs and procedure for organised crime cases and other specially complex criminal acts, public organs and procedure for criminal acts against international humanitarian law and the civil law.

Speaking on fight against corruption, Stojkovic stressed that the Ministry of Justice in cooperation with relevant state bodies and experts from the Council of Europe drafted the Bill on agency for fighting corruption, adopted by the government on October 20.

He also noted that the government on December 21 adopted the Action Plan for implementation of the National strategy for fighting corruption.

Stojkovic recalled that a Commission for implementation of the National strategy for fighting corruption was formed in July comprising representatives of the ministries of justice, interior, finance, public administration and local self-government, parliament, Supreme Court, Serbian Public Attorney’s Office, Secretariat for Judiciary, Anti-Corruption Council, Transparency Serbia and news agency Beta.

Speaking on international legal assistance, Stojkovic noted that the Ministry intensively cooperated with the ICTY, European Court for Human Rights, UN Committee for Human Rights as well as with courts and state bodies of other countries.

The Minister said that the largest number of cases in 2006 concerned appeals of domestic and foreign courts, specifying that this year 9,310 new cases were received.

According to Stojkovic, the Ministry, as the supreme organ in the sense of the Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, processed 30 cases during the year whereas 40 cases from previous years are also under way.

When it comes to legalisation of documents in international traffic, the Ministry approved 1,323 legalisations and gave consent for around 200 international warrants to be issued.

The Ministry also made 20 decisions on extradition of foreign citizens who were detained in Serbia in line with international warrants, said Stojkovic.

He stressed that a Twinning Project with Slovenian and German justice ministries is under way and it concerns the reform of the judiciary and improvement of the Serbian justice ministry, as well as the Project for Fighting Economic Crime in Serbia – PAKO Serbia.

Stojkovic recalled that within the National Investment Plan, the budget rebalance helped approve 17 projects referring to the construction, reconstruction and modernisation of courts.

He also stressed that the Ministry is striving to enable its organs to function without disturbance and with that aim it bought or leased adequate business space.

He said that constant supervision of courts in the past three years gave important results, and specified that in 2006 138 municipal courts were supervised, 25 district courts and 5 displaced courts from Kosovo-Metohija. When it comes to special courts, 18 commercial and the Supreme Commercial Court were also monitored.

Stojkovic said that starting from the National Judicial Reform Strategy and the established goals such as the strengthening of court independence and increase of efficiency, it was determined that there is a need to monitor the solving of prioritised and old cases in courts.