Government of the Republic of Serbia Presentation of the Work Programme for the year 2008 Dušan Petrović, Minister of Justice Ministry of Justice December 17, 2007

Insufficient competence of Judges/corruption Large number of unsolved/statute of limitation expired cases Inefficiency and complex procedures What we have found... The way to overcome this: We have numerous analysis elaborated, all relevant data and statistics gathered...and on bases of precise data and assessment of needs... We have prepared all-embracing WORKING PROGRAM for year 2008 and beyond

Work programme has been harmonised with National Strategy of the Republic of Serbia for EU accession Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper for Serbia The Programme of the Government of the Republic of Serbia Three existing strategies of the Ministry of Justice (National Judicial Reform Strategy, National Strategy for Fighting against Corruption, Penal Reform Strategy) And other relevant documents

From June until now The Law on Constitutional Court has been elaborated and was adopted in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia on November 24, 2007 The Law on Personal Data Protection has been elaborated, the public discussion has been carried out and the draft of the Law has been sent to further procedure Numerous reconstructions and modernisations of judicial and penitentiary buildings have been started In cooperation with relevant unions the Ministry of Justice has prepared the Action plan for solving the problem of excessive number of employees with the aim of achieving rationalisation of the number of employees in judicial bodies. The MoJ has also prepared the model of stimulation for employees which takes into account achieved work results. These documents have been accepted by the Government of Serbia.

Work Programme for 2008

Funding of the Reform The amounts listed in the tables do not cover all funds that will be invested in judicial reform in 2008, because they do not include all regular funds from the budget of the Republic of Serbia, rather only additional expenses that are foreseen according to particular priorities Also, there are numerous donors that significantly contribute to the support of the judicial reform of the Republic of Serbia, but whose financial contributions are difficult to accurately set into the table because their support is represented by multi- annual programmes (Canadian Project of 5,000,000 Canadian Dollars), or they support working groups, provide experts, training programmes, support organisation of public discussions and conferences and organise study visits (OSCE, Council of Europe, USAID, GTZ, AECI, FOS and many others)

Improvement of Information Technologies In order to meet the needs of modern democratic society and current trends to achieve the highest possible degree of efficiency and transparency, for establishing of the law governed state and governance of the law it is necessary to have reliable, up to date and modern way of managing of court statistics and case management, as well as accessibility of relevant information concerning the work of courts and jurisprudence on internet pages. That is why the Ministry of Justice will in the following period pay special attention to improving of informational technologies on all system levels, up to the full automatisation and modernisation of judicial institutions, Ministry of Justice and the Department for Execution of Penal Sanctions, based on lessons learned from the successful implementations of SENA and LIBRA IN SOPHISTICATED, INTEGRATED AND ECONOMICAL WAY

Legislative initiatives HAVING IN MIND THE NEW CONSTITUTION AND OBLIGATIONS ARISING FROM IT, THE INTERNATIONAL AND EU STANDARDS, AS WELL AS THE NEED FOR REFORM,HAVING IN MIND THE NEW CONSTITUTION AND OBLIGATIONS ARISING FROM IT, THE INTERNATIONAL AND EU STANDARDS, AS WELL AS THE NEED FOR REFORM, THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE IS HEADING TO THE VERY INTENSIVE LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY IN THE NEXT YEAR THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE IS HEADING TO THE VERY INTENSIVE LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY IN THE NEXT YEAR

Laws that we will submit for adoption March 2008 The group of judicial laws (The Law on Organisation of Courts, the Law on Judges, Law on High Court Council, the Law on Public Prosecutors, the Law on State Prosecutorial Council, the Law on seats and jurisdictions of courts and public prosecutor’s offices)

Laws that we will submit for adoption April 2008 The Law on Agency for Fight Against Corruption The Law on Criminal Liability of Legal Entities The Law on Confiscation of Assets Attained through Execution of Criminal Offence The Law on Cooperation with the International Criminal Court The Law on Changes and Supplements of the Law on Misdemeanors The Law on Changes and Supplements of the Law on Execution of Penal Sanctions

Laws that we will submit for adoption September/October 2008 The Law on Attorneys at law The Law on Notaries The Law on ratification of the Convention on Cyber Crime and the Protocols of the Convention The Law on Changes and Supplements of Criminal Procedural Code The Law on State Authorities and the Procedure for Criminal Offences of Organised Crime and other Especially Serious Criminal Offences The Law on State Authorities and Procedure for Criminal Offences against International Humanitarian Law

Laws that we will submit for adoption November/December 2008 The Law on Bar Exam The Law on National Judicial Training Institute The Law on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters The Law on mutual legal assistance in civil matters The Law on Application of Detention in Special Detention Units and the Execution of Prison Sentence in Special Prison Wards The Law on Ratification of the Protocol of the European Convention on Suppression of Terrorism The Law on Ratification of Council of Europe Convention on Money Laundering, Searching, Seizure and Confiscation of Assets Gained through Criminal Activities and on Financing the Terrorism

What we need from you Policy and technical support for implementation of the reforms Financial support, especially for introduction of new technologies and institutes, as well as reconstruction and construction of buildings Constructive Criticism/Understanding