Committee Chairman Dr Ugljesa Mrdic thanked all present for their participation and welcomed them to the public hearing, Minister of Justice Nenad Vujic and his assistant Branislav Stojanovic, MP Miroslav Petrasinovic, President of Nis City Assembly Darko Nikolic, as well as representatives of ministries, international organisations, judicial bodies and organisations, the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and civil society organisations.

At the very beginning, Committee Chairman Dr Ugljesa Mrdic mentioned the reasons why the public hearings were organised, as well as the Committee’s decision passed at its 27th sitting, held on 29 July 2026, to hold public hearings on these topics, emphasising how important public hearings are for involving the professional and interested public in the process of legislative drafting.

Minister of Justice Nenad Vujic presented the Bill on the Judicial Academy, emphasising that it incorporates the key recommendations of the Venice Commission, represents one of the key steps in judicial reform and fulfilling the obligations from the Action Plan for Chapter 23 in the negotiations with the European Union, and brings changes in the Academy’s governing bodies. The goal is to ensure greater independence and objectivity in the work of the Judicial Academy and improve the system of selection and professional training of future judges and prosecutors. He particularly emphasised that the reformed composition of the Board of Directors and the Programme Council, aims to make the Judicial Academy a unique and objective system for entering the Serbian judiciary and to contribute to the expertise, integrity and independence of future judges and prosecutors. He also stressed that the Academy will train both judges and judicial and prosecutorial assistants, as well as judicial and prosecutorial administration.

MP Miroslav Petrasinovic presented the Draft Law amending and modifying the Law on Prevention of Corruption. He said that the amendments are aimed, among other things, at improving electoral conditions and implementing ODIHR recommendations. Petrasinovic also emphasised that the Draft Law also includes the remaining 13 GRECO recommendations and stated that, when it comes to basic provisions, interventions have been made by including a wider number of people who are now defined as public officials. In the course of his presentation, Petrasinovic said that the proposed amendments introduce stricter rules regarding the incompatibility of public office, more clearly separate the exercise of public office from party activity on social networks, and improve the transparency of the work of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. As he pointed out, the issues of financing of election campaigns, the activities of third parties in the campaign, the control of political party financing and donations are additionally regulated. Also Petrasinovic stated that the penalties for violating the rules have been tightened, especially for the provisions stipulated in Article 50, if the violation occurred in relation to the performance of public office during the period when the election campaign began.

"In this way, we have continued what we started a few months ago, when it comes to changing, or rather reforming, in a way, our electoral legislation, all in line with ODIHR recommendations and GRECO recommendations, to make the electoral process even better," concluded Petrasinovic.

In the discussion that followed, the participants in the public hearing exchanged opinions on the proposed legal solutions, presented their observations, positions and suggestions.

The public hearing was attended by Committee members Lidija Nacic, Dragan Nikolic, Branko Pavlovic and Risto Kostov, as well as MPs who are not members of the Committee Haji Milorad Stosic, Stefan Kitanovic and Olivera Denic.

The Committee on the Judiciary, Public Administration and Local Self-Government will hold its next public hearings on the same topic on 20 and 21 August 2026 in Novi Sad and Belgrade.