08. 10. 2014

Sabic: Action plan for Chapter 23 below necessary level

Sabic released that the adoption of such document would sooner or later exert a negative effect on the course of the talks with the EU, as well as the realisation and protection of rights of Serbian citizens.

"Action plans cannot and must not entail ignoring the overlooked points. Such approach cannot bring us closer to the desired goal, on the contrary," Sabic said and added that the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance and Law on Personal Data Protection need to be amended.

He said that the need for amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance was detected a few years ago and that the draft bill was forwarded to the parliament for adoption in 2012 but was soon withdrawn by the government.

The action plan for the implementation of the National Strategy on the Fight against Corruption envisages that the draft would be prepared in May, while the bill should be defined in June and the law would be adopted in early September, he said and added that despite these deadlines, nothing has been done. The draft action plan for Chapter 23 now envisages that the deadline for the amendments to the Law is the fourth quarter of 2015, he said.

Sabic noted that the amendments to the Law on Personal Data Protection envisages that the second quarter of 2014 which was set down as the deadline has not been observed and that the deadline as defined in the latest draft would be set down later in the third quarter of 2015.

It is a fact that the draft action plan states that the government adopted the Strategy for Personal Data Protection but it fails to note that the action plan was never adopted.

Sabic noted that securing the necessary financial and personnel resources for the commissioner is delayed until the beginning of 2016.