Today, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has received the Ambassador Andrea Orizio, Head of the OSCE Mission to Belgrade, who was accompanied by Michael Uyehara, Deputy Head of the Mission, and Giovanni Gabassi, Chief of Cabinet, and they discussed further cooperation between this international organization and the institution of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection.

The Commissioner and the OSCE Ambassador discussed the results of current and modalities of future cooperation between the OSCE and the institution of the Commissioner. Ambassador Orizio expressed a high opinion of the mode of operation and results of the institution of the Commissioner and confirmed the OSCE’s readiness to continue to provide maximum support to the institution of the Commissioner.

Ambassador Orizio was particularly interested in the exercise of the roles of the Commissioner and other independent supervisory institutions in this regard. In the context of current elections, they were interested in the existence and functions of authorities and institutions whose role is to oversee the course of the elections from various aspects.

The Commissioner thanked the OSCE Mission for their support and assistance, stressing that the assistance from the international environment is particularly important in the context of the tasks placed before our country in connection with the implementation of democratic standards in the field of personal data protection, since we are rather lagging behind with the resolution of a series of open issues in this area. It is very important, both in terms of EU integration and, which is more important, in terms of human rights’ promotion to start improving this situation as soon as possible. Any well-intentioned, high-quality assistance in this regard is quite welcome.