News

On February 14, 2024, the Office of the Commissioner, in cooperation with the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, held a training for representatives of state authorities in the Palace of Serbia on the preparation and submission of Information Booklets and Annual Reports under the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance. The training was attended by over 120 representatives of state authorities, who had many questions regarding the practical application of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Milan Marinović, and the State Secretary in the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, Dr. Ivan Bošnjak, gave opening remarks, while the employees of the Commissioner's Sector for Reporting and Analytical Affairs Zlatko Petrović and Mirela Zozi Jeković conducted the training and were answering to questions.

On February 8, 2024, Deputy Commissioner Sanja Unković gave an opening speech at the Training of Data Protection Officers (DPOs) at the National Academy for Public Administration (NAJU). In addition to the Deputy Commissioner, the participants were greeted by Prof. Dr. Svetlana Jovanović from the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, Zoran Mišić Deputy Director of the Office for IT and eGovernment, and Dejan Raketić Assistant Director in NAJU.

The Deputy Commissioner introduced the participants of the training to the current situation in the field of personal data protection in the Republic of Serbia, emphasizing the importance and the role of the Data Protection Officer, and appealing to authorities and other Data Controllers who are obliged to designate a Data Protection Officer to do so as soon as possible and inform the Commissioner about it, that is, if necessary, to update data of their current DPOs ensuring not to list their private addresses and phone numbers as contact information for those persons.

In addition to mentioned above, the Deputy indicated the necessity of amending the current Law on Personal Data Protection, which, among other things, will more effectively regulate the position, conditions for determining, and obligations of Data Protection Officers.

This training was developed as part of the World Bank Project "Training Services for Data Protection Officers and Raising Awareness of Civil Servants in accordance with the GDPR, the Law on Personal Data Protection, and the Law on Information Security of the Republic of Serbia" whose beneficiary is Office for IT and E-Government. The project is implemented by a consortium led by Ernest&Young d.o.o. Belgrade, with the support of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, and the National Academy for Public Administration.

The goal of this project, as well as the aforementioned training, is to improve the implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection and the Law on Information Security.

On Wednesday, February 7, representatives of the Office of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, accredited lecturers Nataša Mirjanić, Marin Cetinić, and Marko Milošević, held a training in the field of application of the Law on the Personal Data Protection and the Law on Free Access to Information from the Public importance for representatives of the faculties and institutes of the University of Novi Sad on the premises of the Rectorate. This was also an opportunity to present the work of the Office of the Commissioner in Novi Sad, and Ostoja Kalaba pointed out the potentiality of direct cooperation. Thirty people attended the training, and the lecture was followed by a discussion where numerous doubts regarding the application of both laws were resolved.

Today, the Office of the Commissioner, in cooperation with the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities and the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, held online training for representatives of local self-government units. The topic of today's training was the implementation of measures to improve the transparency of the work of Public Authorities from the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, specifically the creation of Information Booklets on their work and submission of Annual Reports. The training was attended by a large number of local self-government employees, who raised many questions regarding the practical application of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance.

In front of the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, Acting Assistant Minister Žarko Stepanović opened the training, and employees of the Sector for Reporting and Analytical Affairs of the Commissioner conducted the training and gave answers to the questions.