Today, Minister of Justice Nikola Selaković met with the Special Advisor in Euro-Integration Process to the Republic of Serbia and the former Head of the Italian Diplomacy Franco Frattini.

At the meeting, Selaković and Frattini discussed Serbia’s progress in the euro-integration process, as well as the steps made towards the promotion of the Serbian judiciary. Selaković familiarised Frattini with the importance of the acts passed in the previous year – the Whistleblowers Protection Act, the Mediation Act and others – and added that the working groups of the Ministry of Justice were working on the preparation of several other system-relevant statutory and strategic documents, such as the Protection of the Right to a Trial within Reasonable Timeline Act, Free Legal Aid Act and the Financial Crime Investigation Strategy.

Frattini emphasised that Serbia was making positive steps towards the EU and stated that the Chapter 23 Negotiations Action Plan, in terms of its technical quality, was well received within the EU institutions. He added that in Serbia, administrative procedures needed to be simplified and statutes made more comprehensible, all of which was of importance and interest to the citizens.

At the end of the meeting, Selaković said that the Chapter 23 Negotiations Action Plan was in its final drafting stage and added that Serbia would do all that was expected of it in order to have Chapter 23 opened as soon as possible, thus leaving the final act of opening of Chapter 23 to the EU.