Asked by Beta agency to comment on the possible adoption of the Law on Personal Data Protection, which could contain an amended provision from Article 45, paragraph 2 of the Bill which the Commissioner for Information criticized and the Ombudsman requested its deletion by an adequate amendment, Commissioner Rodoljub Šabić said the following:

“I categorically claim and back it with all my expert and professional dignity that an arrangement similar to the one envisaged in Article 45 paragraph 2 of the Bill, which completely relativizes the powers of a body responsible for personal data protection, cannot be found anywhere in comparative law, that this same arrangement grossly contravenes the commitments we assumed by signing the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Protection of Persons against Automatic Processing of Personal Data and that it is below the level of competence of the Ombudsman, which was laid down by the existing Law, passed as early as in 1998.

It is irrelevant whether personal data protection will be provided by the Commissioner or some other independent body. What is important is only that he has at his disposal real authorities to perform his function, because real, not ostensible, protection is necessary. Certain states sometimes limit the right of citizens to personal data protection by laws or reservations to international conventions, but limitation like these are not envisaged for a body which provides guaranteed protection. Even the said Law on Personal Data Protection from the time of Milošević's rule, adopted in 1998, envisages identical or even slightly higher powers, but without any limitations. I would like to add that it seems almost absurd to have Bill on Personal Data Protection and the ratification of the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Protection of Persons against Automatic Processing of Personal Data on the agenda of the same session of the National Assembly because limitations such as the one set out in Article 45 paragraph 2 cannot be understood from the aspect of position and powers envisaged by the Additional Protocol for competent bodies.

I think that by adopting an arrangement which brings a protection mechanism that would not only contravene international democratic standards, but would actually provide a level of protection lower than the one granted ten years ago, a pro-European and democratic government would send to our citizens and the wider region a message that is pretty difficult to decipher. And if such an arrangement were to be adopted, it could be truly detrimental to human rights in more ways than one. In this context, resignation of the current Commissioner for Information, which I am prepared to offer and which I announced not because I want to blackmail or flirt, but out of personal and professional principles, is the least important issue.”