Danijela Nestorovic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)
Representatives of the Venice Commission will meet with opposition representatives in Belgrade on March 16 to discuss the recently changed judicial laws adopted on the proposal by Serbian Progressive Party MP Ugljesa Mrdic. Ecological Uprising MP Danijela Nestorovic told BETA that the meeting will take place in the afternoon, and that she will represent her party during the talks.
Serbian Speaker Ana Brnabic officially asked the Venice Commission on Feb. 10 for an urgent opinion on the “Mrdic laws,” stating that they would be changed if that turned out to be necessary.
The Commission later stated that the urgent opinion on the recently amended laws in Serbia sought by Brnabic would be submitted for endorsement at the plenary session of that Council of Europe’s advisory body in June.
In an interview for TV Una on March 1, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced that representatives of the Commission would arrive in Belgrade in mid March to address the issue of said laws. “We will wait to see what the representatives of the Commission will say about them,” Vucic stated, adding that Serbia would “do everything to accelerate its progress” toward EU membership.
On March 4, five opposition parties submitted a request to the Serbian Parliament for the five judicial laws adopted on Mrdic’s proposal to be annulled, stating that they were passed to strengthen the ruling regime’s political control over the judiciary and thereby additionally undermine the rule of law and diminish the authorities’ responsibility for corruption and violation of laws.
The request to cancel said laws was submitted by the Green-Left Front, the Movement of Free Citizens, the People’s Movement of Serbia, Serbia Center-SRCE and the Freedom and Justice Party.
On Jan. 28, the Serbian Parliament adopted amendments to the Law on public prosecution, the Law on the High Prosecutorial Council, the Law on the organization and jurisdiction of state authorities in the fight against high-tech crime, the Law on judges, and the Law on the seats and territorial jurisdictions of courts and public prosecutor’s offices.
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