The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Rodoljub Sabic views the readiness of the Ministry of Justice to accept criticisms by the experts of the proposal of the Law on Confidential Information as a responsible and constructive approach, as well as praises their willingness to withdraw the proposal if the proposal's inadequacies are so vast that they cannot not be overcome by amendments.
The Commissioner stated the following regarding this:
«Serbia needs a Law on Confidential Information, but the current proposal is both conceptually, legally, and technically subpar. Clauses that allow for the 'observed' to suspend the decisions of their controllers who are legally obligated to oversee their actions render this proposal senseless. These clauses are not sustainable and are completely nonsensical. Solutions like this do not exist anywhere in the world.
The suggestion that the law implementation could be overseen by a government agency is also not feasible. This suggestion is not functional and is also unconstitutional as the constitution excludes the possibility of the government overseeing law implementation. The role of the Ombudsman and the Commissioner, as well as that of the State Auditor Institution and the Anti-Corruption Agency, become obsolete.
These criticisms, as well as numerous others, were reiterated by the participants of the yesterday's expert discussion organized by the Civic Initiatives NGO and CCVO. Despite a delay, it is a good sign that the Ministry is ready to accept these criticisms. This attitude could mean a beginning of the Government's improvement in its legislative practice.
The 'fuss' created around the Information Law proposal reminds us that not consulting experts when proposing a law in a certain field is not an example of good practice as it ignores the possibility of the proposal improvement. Public discussions and debates regarding important legislature should not depend on someone's willingness to organize them; they should be mandatory. More precisely, Article 77 of the Law on State Administration outlines that 'when proposing a law that leads to significant changes in a certain field, public debates are mandatory and ought to be organized'. Even if there was no article stating the previously-quoted rule, individuals involved in preparing law proposals are most often not experts in a given field and should rely on the help of science, experts, and the civil society.»
