Secretary of the Ministry of Interior Milorad Todorovic provided the rationale on the Bill saying that the amendments concern six articles of the existing Law and that the Ministry is still working on a new one which is expected to be passed in the fall. The Bill amending and modifying the Law on Police sets the legal grounds for the establishment of several sectors at the Ministry of Interior which will in turn complete the reform process. It also defines the special units of the Ministry of Interior and the conditions for their engagement in view of the importance of speedy reactions to crisis situations. The Bill also sets the legal grounds for the Ministry of Interior’s immediate reaction to a reported missing person, which was not the case before. In addition, the Bill sets the legal grounds for the application of other laws at the Ministry of Interior which enable security checks in its units. The last set of amendments concern the grounds for the retirement of a number of officers who had in their career performed extremely difficult and dangerous jobs.

In the ensuing debate, the Committee members asked whether the Bill was harmonised with the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance, whether the Ministry of Interior had assessed how many people would be retired on these new grounds and how much money was necessary for their retirement packages, and whether the number of operative posts in the special anti-terrorist unit’s structure has been raised considering that it is to be merged with the anti-terrorist unit.

Following the debate, the Committee members accepted the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Police by majority vote.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairperson Marija Obradovic.