On February 10, 2015, the delegation of Serbian judicial stakeholders together with the World Bank team hosted an event in Brussels to present lessons learned and key findings from the Serbia Judicial Functional Review. The Serbian delegation was led by the President of the Supreme Court of Cassation Mr. Dragomir Milojević and Assistant Minister at the Ministry of Justice Mr. Čedomir Backović, and also included Ms. Mirjana Puzović from the Supreme Court of Cassation, Ms, Majda Kršikapa form the High Judicial Council, Mr. Vladimir Vukčević from the Ministry of Justice, and Mr. Milan Antonijević, President of YUCOM. The presentation was organized at the World Bank Office in Brussels and gathered a range of the EU Commission colleagues who work on judicial reform in countries of the Western Balkans.
The participants were greeted by Mr. Massimiliano Paolucci, WB Special Representative to the European Union, and Ms. Myriam Ferran, Head of the Serbia unit at the DG NEAR. President Milojević and Assistant Minister Backović highlighted the importance of the Serbia Judicial Functional Review to the successful finalization of the Action Plan and future opening of negotiation under the Chapter 23. Assistant Minister Backović, who is also the Chief Negotiator for Chapter 23, said that the Functional Review presents a data-rich baseline for Serbia’s accession under the Chapter 23. He also said that the Serbian judiciary is now in a good position to set targets and to measure results of the judicial reform processes. President Milojević highlighted the value of the iterative process, which was employed throughout the preparation of the Serbia Judicial Functional Review, as a good example on how to build a consensus over important issues in the judicial reform.
Mr. Klaus Decker, Task Team Leader of the MDTF-JSS, Ms. Georgia Harley, Justice Sector Specialist, and Mr. Srdjan Svirčev, Public Sector Specialist, presented on behalf of the MDTF-JSS key parameters of the Serbia Judicial Functional Review. They explained the process and methodology of data collection, consultation and preparation of the Functional Review.
The presentation was attended by more than 30 stakeholders, ranging from the EU Commission employees working on countries in Western Balkans, to the DG NEAR, DG JUSTICE and CSO representatives.
You can access the Serbia Judicial Functional Review here. The Functional Review was funded by the MDTF-JSS, which has been established with generous contributions from the EU Delegation in Serbia, the United Kingdom Department for International Development, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland.