On August 9, 2024, Commissioner Milan Marinović and Deputy Commissioner Sanja Unković met with H.E. Christian Ebner, Austrian Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia, and Mr. George Stav, Justice Attaché.
In a constructive conversation, the Commissioner introduced the high officials of the Republic of Austria to the history and competencies of the Commissioner as an independent state body and the challenges faced by this institution in its work.
On July 31, 2024, the anniversary of the work of the Commissioner's Office in Niš was marked. Also, from July 29 to August 2, 2024, several trainings were held in the field of Access to Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection for students of the Faculty of Law in Niš, as part of student internships. The trainings were held by: the head of the Office in Niš, Tamara Bojanić, as well as colleagues from the Commissioner's Office in Belgrade, Marko Milošević, Marin Cetinić, and Ivan Trišović. In the continuation of the internship, students will have the opportunity to become familiar with the creation of Information Booklets and other segments of the work of the Commissioner's Office, through online training and cooperating with representatives from the Commissioner's Office in Belgrade.
Representatives of the Commissioner’s Office and the Ministry of Interior (MUP) in cooperation with the OSCE Mission in Serbia continued training courses for members of the MUP. From July 23 to 25, 2024, three new trainings were held for employees of the Police Departments (PD) in Čačak, Užice, and Prijepolje. Emina Kovačević from the Commissioner’s Office – Head of the Department for Supervision over Data Protection in Public Authorities, Territorial Autonomy Authorities, Local Self-government Units, and Dragan Obradović from the MUP Secretariat held the training courses. The impressive interest of MUP members in Personal Data Protection training was confirmed with 237 participants in the above-said three PDs, to be specific: 94 participants in Čačak PD, 65 in Užice PD, and 74 in Prijepolje PD. The largest number of doubts and questions from the relevant training courses was related to acting on citizens’ requests and whether consent can be used as a legal basis for acting on, the use of the MUP information system, and when it is justifiable to use the information system during person checking. Also, through conversations and examples from practice, the difference was distinguished for MUP members when they are acting in general, and when in the so-called special mode of data processing.
From July 16 to 18, 2024, three more trainings were held for the Ministry of Interior (MUP) employees in Zaječar, Bor, and Pirot Police Departments. So far, these trainings have included ten police departments from the territory of the entire RS, aiming to raise the awareness of police chiefs and police officers regarding the personal data processing they meet in their daily work.
The main focus of these three trainings, which were followed by a long exchange of attitudes and opinions, was on the setting of the legal basis for the prosecution of criminal suspects, the interpretation of provisions from Art. 246 of the Criminal Code of the RS, handling cases of MUP's confiscation of citizens' vehicles, and processing data on citizens' phone numbers when carrying out MUP administrative duties.
The trainings for PU Zaječar, PU Bor, and PU Pirot were held by Marin Cetinić from the Office of the Commissioner, Sector for Education and Certification and Dragan Obradović from the Secretariat of the Ministry of Interior, with a total of 107 participants - PD Zaječar 28, PD Bor 35, and PD Pirot 44 participants.
