The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection estimates the quality of the Draft Chapter 23 Negotiations Action Plan (available on the website of the Ministry of Justice), at least in terms of ​​free access to information and personal data protection, to be significantly below expected and required level.

The Commissioner estimates that the adoption of the document to this effect would sooner or later have a negative impact on the course of negotiations with the European Union and, more importantly, on the exercise and protection of the rights of Serbian citizens guaranteed under the Constitution and the law. In this regard, the Commissioner has stated the following:

"Action planning cannot and must not imply ignoring and postponement of omitted and outstanding obligations, which could and should have been met. Such an approach can in no way bring us closer to the desired goal, on the contrary.

In this regard, just as an illustration, I will mention a few of the variety of relevant facts which I have highlighted many times before.

The need for amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information was observed several years ago. In 2012, the corresponding Bill was drafted and forwarded to the parliamentary procedure. The proposal (including all earlier Government proposals) was withdrawn from the parliamentary procedure by the Government, which neither sent it back to the procedure, nor questioned the need to amend the Law. Therefore the Action Plan for the Implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy stipulates that the draft is to be prepared in May, the Bill in June and the Law on Amendments to the Law on Free access to Information adopted early in September this year. However, nothing of the above has been done. Now, the Draft Chapter 23 Negotiations Action Plan provides for the fourth quarter of 2015 as the deadline for amendments to this Law!

The need for amendments to the Law on Personal Data Protection was established long ago. The previous action plans adopted by the Government in order to meet the recommendations of the European Commission established the deadlines for amendments; the first Plan stipulates the end of August 2013, and the second, the second quarter of 2014. Both deadlines have been missed, and now the last Draft does not contain the deadline for "amendments to the legislative framework in the field of data protection", it is just stipulated "will be finalized ex post as of the third quarter of 2015"! In the light of the absence, under the Constitution, of the necessary legislation in a number of delicate areas of personal data processing (video surveillance, biometrics, security checks, etc.) and (in relation to the deadlines stipulated in the Law on Personal Data Protection) the six-year delay for the Government's adoption of the Regulation on Particularly Sensitive Personal Data, prolongation of "activities regarding the normative framework" for an entire year is really incomprehensible.

It sounds almost cynical that the Draft Action Plan notes that the Government has adopted a Personal Data Protection Strategy, and omits to note that the Action Plan for the Implementation of the Strategy has never been adopted, resulting in a Strategy which is "a dead letter" even today. In one of the said action plans to meet the recommendations of the EC, that was scheduled for the second quarter of 2013. The Action Plan, however, has not been adopted, and in the Draft I am referring to this fact is not even mentioned! Having in mind that the Strategy was adopted in the summer of 2010 and that the deadline for the adoption of an action plan for its implementation was November 2010, the tardiness lasting for 4 years now will be extended until further notice.

Finally, as regards the need to "provide the necessary financial and human resources to the Commissioner for Information," repeatedly highlighted not only in Government documents but also in the conclusions of the National Assembly, on occasion of the adoption of the report of the Commissioner, it is postponed for the beginning of 2016 under this Draft Action Plan! Having in mind the generally known fact that the Commissioner has been working with a number of associates which is much smaller than required and expected, and that he is faced with an enormous and ever-growing number of complaints from citizens seeking to protect their rights, I deem every comment of this fact redundant."