“By improving the legal framework that defines the work of the Protector of Citizens and regulates free access to information of public importance, we aim to improve the responsibility and transparency of public administration, as well as to strengthen the independence of these two important institutions”, the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Marija Obradović, has said at the beginning of the cognate debate in principle on the draft laws on the Protector of Citizens and on amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance.
Explaining the draft laws to the MPs, she has said that they are presented with legal solutions on which the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government started working five years ago, and which contain numerous opinions, recommendations and attitudes of both the citizens and interested Civil Society Organizations, OECD/EU SIGMA experts, as well as of the institutions of the Protector of Citizens and the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, who have actively participated in the development of these legal solutions.
Obradović has stated that the Ministry was guided by the Venice Principles on the Protection and Promotion of the Ombudsman Institution, the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents – the Tromsø Convention, the Principles of Public Administration of the European Commission, as well as remarks and proposals that have appeared in practice thus far.
“We are significantly improving the independence of the Protector of Citizens by strengthening his competencies in terms of independently appointing his deputies and arranging the professional service. A particular novelty is that both the Protector and the Commissioner shall be elected following a public call announced by the Speaker of the National Assembly, with the obligation of the competent parliamentary committee to conduct a public interview with the candidates before defining the election proposals and enable them to express their views on the role and manner of performing the duties of both institutions. Moreover, the mandate for which both the Protector and the Commissioner shall be elected shall be extended by new legal provisions for a period of eight years, but without the possibility of re-election”, Obradović has stressed.
Speaking about the novelties brought by the Law on the Protector of Citizens, she has stated that this institution will be given new powers by the Draft Law, by entrusting the work of the National Independent Mechanism for Monitoring the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the work of the National Rapporteur in the field of trafficking in human beings, in addition to the previously entrusted tasks of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture. Moreover, the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government has said that the Draft Law enables budget-financial independence of the Protector of Citizens, i.e. it introduces the principle of prohibiting the reduction of budget funds, unless the funds of other budget beneficiaries are also reduced, in order to ensure the efficient and effective performance of his function. Another novelty is the regulation of the procedure before the Protector of Citizens, the introduction of a expedited and investigation procedure and the prescribing of deadlines for acting on citizens’ complaints.
The Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Access to Information of Public Importance improves the transparency and increases the amount of information that should be contained in the Fact Sheet, establishes a single information system managed and maintained by the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, and prevents abuse of rights of information seekers initiating misdemeanor proceedings without prior filing of a complaint before the Commissioner.
“By amending the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance we promote access to information on a proactive basis, while the data from Fact Sheet will be updated within 30 days and shall contain information for which there is the greatest public interest. The circle of persons and authorities to which the Draft Law refers is expanded, and includes new categories such as public enterprises, notaries public and enforcement officers, institutions and organizations and other legal entities established by the Republic of Serbia, AP or local self-government units, including city municipalities, as well as other authorities to which the Law has not referred so far. Moreover, the Commissioner is now given more operational authority in order to impose sanctions for non-enforcement of his decisions, as well as to submit requests for initiating appropriate misdemeanor proceedings”, Obradović has concluded.
Today, the National Assembly has initiated a cognate debate in principle on the Draft Laws on the Protector of Citizens and on Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, while the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government has invited MPs to adopt the proposed legal solutions on Voting Day.
Photo and video gallery
Expositions of Minister Marija Obradović in the National Assembly – source National Assembly
Video cover – source Tanjug