Source: "Blic"
Commissioner for Information Rodoljub Sabic sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs a binding decision ordering it to submit to daily paper "Danas" Government's action plan for the visa waiver program with the EU
Belgrade - Commissioner for Information of Public Importance Rodoljub Sabic annulled a decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs by which a request to submit to daily paper "Danas" the Governments Action Plan on Serbia's planned action for the visa waiver program with the EU was denied. Mr. Sabic ordered to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to submit to our paper a copy of a document from which we can learn Serbia's planned activities until April this year aimed at liberalization of the EU visa regime towards Serbia.In rationale of his decision Mr. Sabic among other things wrote that the Ministry of Internal Affairs "apparently overestimated scope of agreement following a request of representatives of the European Commission from a meeting held on 15 December 2008 on confidentiality of information and documents regarding negotiation on the visa regime and mistakenly inferred that it referred to the requested document". Mr. Sabic also wrote that it was clear that the subject of that agreement, its informality aside, may be information and documents directly related to the course of talks, such as preliminary evaluations, suggestions, opinions, requests and information in connection with it, and not a very wide range of documents developed for the purposes of and during processes aimed at the visa regime liberalization and Serbia's European integration. The Commissioner pointed to the relative scope and importance of the agreement which the Ministry of Internal Affairs invokes stating that government officials on a number of occasions publicly disclosed information which could have more legitimate claim to be covered by the agreement.
"Danas" requested from the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the end of January to submit the Action Plan of the Government stating the steps Serbia should take in order to be included in the visa waiver program with the EU, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs sent a notification that it assumed a commitment not to publish information and reports which arose during dialogue with the EU, taking into account the attitude of the EU that publishing of such information may seriously endanger relations among Serbia and the EU Member States.
