High Prosecution Council sent the opinion of the majority of its members to the National Assembly and requested that the proposals for changes to the system laws be withdrawn from the procedure.
Since we are talking about laws that directly deal with the High Council of the Prosecution, its competences and public prosecution in general, the VST indicated in a statement that the absence of any consultation with it violated the VST Law.
The aforementioned law stipulates that the Council "gives an opinion on amendments or additions to existing or the adoption of new laws that regulate the position of holders of the public prosecutor's office, the organization and actions of the public prosecutor's office, as well as other systemic laws that the public prosecutor's office applies or are of importance for the performance of the public prosecutor's office."
It is about the parent laws of the public prosecution, and the Council was not consulted in any way, which grossly violated the Law, it was stated in the announcement.
The council points out that the very nature of the law it is discussing Assembly of Serbia, requires a broad social consensus, especially in professional circles.
He notes that, unlike in 2023, when a set of judicial laws was adopted in a transparent and broadly inclusive process, with the participation of the profession and the general public, a series of public hearings and consultation with the Venice Commission, all of that was absent this time.
"Without disputing the constitutionally guaranteed right of MPs to propose laws themselves, we believe that it is necessary to make changes to such sensitive and narrowly specialized issues in such a way as was done in 2023," stated the announcement of the State Council of Justice.
Solutions contrary to European standards
The Council also indicated that it is breaking with Serbia's aspiration to harmonize its normative framework with European standards, because the proposed solutions are contrary to the current ones, which were praised by the Venice and The European Commission.
Abstaining from consultations with relevant European partners is also contrary to the strategic goal of Serbia's full membership in the EU, as well as to Article 1 of the Constitution itself, which stipulates, among other things, that "the Republic Serbia a state based on belonging to European principles and values", said the Supreme Court of Justice.
The analysis of specific proposed solutions is inexpedient at the moment, because a certain number of amendments are currently being proposed, which can reasonably be assumed to be adopted, and the scope and full scope of the envisioned revision of the law is currently unclear, warned in a statement signed by the president of the Supreme Court of Justice Branko Stamenković.
According to the VST, the entire process cannot and must not be carried out in this way, and the proposed changes should be withdrawn from the procedure by the National Assembly, and subsequent possible changes should be approached in the same way as it was done in 2023, with respect for the law, transparently, inclusively, with the participation and respect of representatives of the profession, but also of the general public.
Source: FoNet
