Former Liaison Prosecutor on Interruption of Serbia’s Cooperation with Eurojust

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Gordana Janicijevic, until recently a liaison prosecutor with Eurojust whose term had not been extended by the High Prosecutorial Council, said in an interview for the Danas daily on March 16, that claims that her term “could not be extended for another six years do not correspond to the truth and have no legal basis,” adding the Eurojust president had also reacted to the matter.

“To someone who watched the session [of the High Prosecutorial Council] it may have appeared that behind everything are some personal interests or possibly the intention of certain interest groups to end a successful cooperation, generally assessed as exceptional, and to have the exchanged data submitted to strict control,” Janicijevic said explaining the importance of this EU Agency for criminal justice cooperation seated in The Hague.

According to her, what is of special concern is “the interruption of continuity in the work of the [Serbia’s Eurojust] office,” given that no new liaison prosecutor was appointed and that on March 1 Serbia closed its office and discontinued its cooperation with Eurojust.

Janicijevic added that the Eurojust president “has openly emphasized that such a decision can cause serious problems in cooperation with Serbia.” Responding to a question whether this decision will endanger the cases she was working on and how many are in progress, she said that “there are many cases at various operational stages.”

“In what way the work [on them] will continue, I have no idea; the Serbian office is closed, we have no liaison prosecutor or a contact person for cooperation with Eurojust in the area of organized crime,” Janicijevic said.