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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Laws on judiciary needed for Serbia’s EU candidate status

Belgrade, 30 October 2008

Serbian Minister of Justice Snezana Malovic said that a new set of laws on the judiciary, that the government adopted today, envisages high standards for judges and prosecutors, their appointment, release of duty and working conditions.

Slobodan Homen, left, and Snezana Malovic

Author: Fonet

She said that the High Council of the Judiciary, not parliament, will be in charge of judges’ appointment, while the State Council of Prosecutors will choose prosecutors and guarantee impartiality in this respect.

According to her, the High Council of the Judiciary will recommend judges to parliament only if they are being chosen for the first time.

The law also envisages that the special prosecutors’ office for organised crime and the war crimes tribunal will be part of the public prosecution system, headed by the state public prosecutor, specified the Minister.

She said that the seven laws adopted today will be implemented from January 1, 2010, while the High Council of the Judiciary is to be set up three months later.

Malovic also said that the Ministry of Justice was informed that the Vladimirci municipal court was set on fire today.

Only criminal cases were burnt and the Ministry’s representatives have already visited the court and will do all they can to enable its continued work.

The Ministry of Interior has already called in two persons for questioning.

State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice Slobodan Homen presented the bill on the headquarters and fields of activity of courts and public prosecutor’s offices, making a new, reduced network of courts.

Homen recalled that such huge changes were last executed in 1946.

According to the bill on court jurisdictions and public prosecutors the number of basic and magistrate courts will be reduced significantly, said the State Secretary adding that currently there are 120 municipal courts that will be reorganised into 34 basic courts.

Homen said that the first basic court will be formed in Belgrade to take the place of the present five municipal courts, and the second basic court will take over the jurisdictions of the municipal courts of Lazarevac, Mladenovac, Obrenovac and Sopot.

According to the new system 44 magistrate courts will be established and departments of these courts will be set up wherever bodies for dealing with civil procedures and misdemeanour criminal trials will be dissolved.

He said that according to the new law 26 high courts, 16 commercial courts and four appeal courts will be established in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis and Kragujevac.

A supreme court of appeal and courts of special jurisdiction, for instance administrative or economic courts, will also be established, said Homen.

Commenting on the European Commission’s assessment that judicial reforms are a condition for acquiring candidacy status in 2009, Homen said that the adoption of these new laws will send a clear message to the EU that Serbia is not only on the way to judicial reform but “almost there”.

The adoption of judiciary laws will be more than enough to qualify Serbia for candidacy status, said the State Secretary adding that the EU praised the judicial reforms implemented so far in Serbia, but considered them to be inadequate.