Brnabic receives Venice Commission delegation

BELGRADE - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic received on Tuesday a Venice Commission delegation that is on a two-day visit to Belgrade.

"The common goal of both sides is the same - a judiciary independent of any kind of pressure and influence, but not independent of the Constitution and the law," an official statement quoted Brnabic as saying.

"Brnabic thanked the members of the delegation for accepting her invitation and coming to Serbia to draft an opinion on the set of judicial laws adopted by parliament earlier this year as soon as possible," the statement also said.

"In an open discussion, the members of the Venice Commission delegation had the opportunity to receive first-hand answers to all questions regarding the adopted set of judicial laws that will be useful to them in drafting the final opinion.

The Assembly Speaker said that Serbia's cooperation with the Venice Commission is exceptionally good, and recalled how important their assistance was in drafting the final version of the constitutional amendments, adopted in the referendum in 2022. Brnabic, who was serving as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia at the time, added that the Venice Commission then assessed the constitutional amendments as a remarkably good step towards an even more independent judiciary, but that even then there was resistance to their adoption, and that the country faced a negative campaign from the same part of the public that are today’s harshest critics of the adoption of judicial laws," the statement said.

The meeting was also attended by the chairman of the parliamentary Committee on the Judiciary, Public Administration and Local Self-Government Ugljesa Mrdic and the head of the Aleksandar Vucic - Serbia Must Not Stop parliamentary group Milenko Jovanov.

According to reports by some media outlets, the Venice Commission delegation also met with opposition representatives on Monday.