Ambassador Van Hoorn said that the NATO expert team, in cooperation with the Ministry of Defence, was preparing a self-assessment report on integrity building and reduction of corruption risks. One of the key requirements for Serbia’s EU accession is combating corruption, which the European Commission has been pointing out to Serbia in its annual reports, said Van Hoorn.
Committee Chairman Petar Petrovic stressed that the National Assembly and the Government are determined to eradicate corruption and are implementing numerous measures and activities to that end, but also added that they need the international community’s support in that effort.
The Committee Chairman briefed the guest on the Committee’s scope and activities in the sphere anti-corruption. He pointed out that the Committee follows the anti-corruption activities of independent state (the Anti-Corruption Agency, Ombudsman, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection) via their annual activity reports and, having deliberated on the reports, submits a report to the National Assembly, accompanied by a proposal of conclusions i.e. recommendations.
Ambassador Van Hoorn wanted to know how budgetary funds for the realisation of all of these independent authorities’ anti-corruption duties were secured, also showing interest in some current issues from the sphere of judiciary reform, particularly the legal grounds for the general election of judges, as well as the decision of the Constitutional Court of Serbia to reinstate the unelected judges.
The Committee Chairman and members provided the guest with the necessary explanations and announced a new set of judiciary laws.