The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Rodoljub Sabic and Ambassador Dimitrios Kypreos, the Head of the OSCE Mission in the Republic of Serbia met in Belgrade today. The main topic of their conversation was the current and future cooperation between the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection and the OSCE Mission which is already at an excellent level. Also, a separate topic of conversation was the question of selection of judicial office holders in Serbia from the perspective of the Commissioner.

In this regard, the Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic stated the following:

“Ambassador Kypreos was interested in the proceedings which I conducted according to the complaint by the Judges’ Association of Serbia against the High Judicial Council which was based in the Law on the Free Access to Information, as well as the survey process that was conducted by persons authorized by the Commissioner in order to check various accusations of potential violations of the Law on Personal Data Protection. I presented the content and the reasons for my decision to accept the complaint by the Judges’ Association of Serbia, as well as the results of the completed survey process. It is all the facts that I had already reported and that are well-known to the public.

I am especially satisfied because the Head of the OSCE Mission valued the work of the institution of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection very highly. Also, I consider it very important that Ambassador Kypreos confirmed the readiness to continue the current, very fruitful, cooperation. Since the office of the Commissioner began its operations, back in 2005, at the time when the Commissioner had no resources at his disposal, the OSCE Mission provided significant assistance in establishing the institution and its activities. Numerous projects have been conducted in cooperation with the Mission, especially in relation to the education of journalists, citizens and state employees about the content and the reach of the Law on the Free Access to Information of Public Importance. Without the support of the OSCE Mission, a great number of those activities could not have been conducted and that is why I am very pleased that Ambassador Kypreos confirmed that we could count on that support in the future as well.”