Vujić: "The National Assembly of Serbia is sending a response today to the opinion of the Venice Commission"

He emphasized that the Commission&rsquo;s opinion shows that the amendments were made in line with standards, but that certain provisions may still need to be further clarified or elaborated.&ldquo;Venice Commission issues opinions; they are advisory, and they speak about compliance with certain standards. Serbia has long-standing cooperation with the Venice Commission, and we are now entering a new procedure. Today, Serbia&rsquo;s response will also be sent, that is, the response of the National Assembly, certain comments will be provided, and the Venice Commission itself, or its experts, will then enter into a professional debate. These are the standards we follow,&rdquo; said Nenad Vujić in an appearance on the morning news program of RTS, when asked about the opinion of the Venice Commission regarding a set of judicial laws adopted on the proposal of MP Uglje&scaron;a Mrdić.The minister stated that from the opinion of the Venice Commission, presented yesterday by the Speaker of the National Assembly Ana Brnabić, it can be concluded that all amendments were made in line with the Commission&rsquo;s standards, but that there is a possibility that certain provisions will need to be further clarified or elaborated.&ldquo;From what the Speaker of the Assembly also said, all these amendments that were made are indeed in line with the standards; they have a certain framework. Of course, certain guarantees may need to be provided, some provisions may need to be further clarified and elaborated, but as was the case with the key issue&mdash;who assigns prosecutors to other prosecutor&rsquo;s offices&mdash;it turned out that we were right. This should be done by the High Council, because that is indeed the standard of the Venice Commission, and Serbia knows these standards,&rdquo; Vujić said.He recalled that Brnabić stated Serbia will not wait until June to begin preparations for amendments to the laws, but will start the process after the second round of talks with experts and exchange of arguments.&ldquo;After the second round of talks with experts and the exchange of arguments, we will already begin certain preparations for amendments, which are more in the direction of further clarification, introducing additional guarantees, against arbitrariness, or additional guarantees in the sense that, if there is no decision, then who can make that decision,&rdquo; the minister explained.Vujić stressed that Serbia wants to start work on amendments to the judicial legislation as soon as possible, because it aims to work intensively on European integration and to demonstrate to the European Commission its readiness and intellectual capacity to understand what is required.Regarding the European agenda led by an operational team headed by Serbia&rsquo;s ambassador to the EU Danijel Apostolović, who said he expects all rule-of-law obligations to be fulfilled by the end of June, Vujić said the Ministry of Justice has already completed the most important part of its obligations and that in September and October last year Serbia sent a set of ten key laws to Brussels.He added that Serbia is now waiting for responses from Brussels regarding compliance with EU standards or with bodies such as GRECO and MONEYVAL, since these are key laws covering the criminal code, criminal procedure, anti-corruption legislation, lobbying, and the Judicial Academy.&ldquo;We have done our part of the job. For two or three laws we have already received opinions and we have returned our comments and clarifications, which are always necessary,&rdquo; he said.Asked whether it is possible to complete the entire process by June, the minister said it is possible, but it depends largely on the responses and speed of the European Commission.&ldquo;It does not depend only on us, but also on the responses and the speed of the European Commission, because that is the step that needs to be taken before the laws enter parliament. Members of my team are in daily communication with members of the Commissioner&rsquo;s team and the Directorate for Enlargement. The Director for Enlargement is coming to Serbia soon. I also regularly communicate and travel to Brussels so that we can see on the ground what still needs to be aligned, in order to have everything ready by June,&rdquo; Vujić concluded.

Vujić: "The National Assembly of Serbia is sending a response today to the opinion of the Venice Commission"

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