The Ministry of Justice stated that the ombudsman, in cooperation with this ministry and the commissioner for information of public importance and protection of personal data, proposed to the parliament to erase article 40 from the Bill on secret data. Minister of Justice Snezana Malovic will accept this before the parliament on behalf of the proposer.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Justice, this article denies access to the ombudsman and the commissioner for information of public importance to some secret data when they need them in order to exercise control and carry out tasks established by the Constitution and law.
Malovic said that she will accept this amendment of the ombudsman and thus there will be no restrictions for the ombudsman and the commissioner. This decision was made after an expert discussion by two civil society organisations – the Civic Initiative and the Centre for civil-military relations, and after obtaining an opinion from the experts of the Council of Europe.
The Bill on secret data is currently being examined by the parliament.