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At an extraordinary session held on June 18, the High Prosecutorial Council (HPC) returned all prosecutors to the Special Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime (TOK) who had been removed from that office under the so-called Mrdić laws. The decision fulfills one of the Venice Commission's recommendations on judicial reform, as prosecutors Irena Bjeloš and Aleksandar Barac are among those returning. The Council also decided to second prosecutor Boris Majlat to TOK.
The session did not stop there. Alongside the Venice Commission-compliant secondments, the HPC also seconded several prosecutors from basic to higher prosecution offices - a practice that will no longer be permissible once the law amendments based on Venice Commission recommendations are adopted. Some of those seconded had only recently been appointed as prosecutors, meaning they are being placed in senior offices with no prosecutorial experience.
The combination of these two types of decisions is telling. While the HPC formally checked a box on the Venice Commission's list, it simultaneously used the same session to push through secondments that run contrary to the spirit of the same reform framework.
CRTA's assessment is that the entire process - from the adoption of the Mrdić laws in January through today's session - amounts to one large abuse, or a series of smaller ones. Each individual decision can be defended on its own terms, but together they constitute a systematic erosion of prosecutorial independence.
It is worth noting that the "positive Venice Commission opinion" the government is celebrating - and citing as grounds for unblocking Serbia's EU integration - is, in fact, a positive opinion on reversing changes the same government introduced just six months ago. This is not progress in rule of law or reform - it is a return to the previous legal framework.
The session did not stop there. Alongside the Venice Commission-compliant secondments, the HPC also seconded several prosecutors from basic to higher prosecution offices - a practice that will no longer be permissible once the law amendments based on Venice Commission recommendations are adopted. Some of those seconded had only recently been appointed as prosecutors, meaning they are being placed in senior offices with no prosecutorial experience.
While the HPC formally checked a box on the Venice Commission's list, it simultaneously used the same session to push through secondments that run contrary to the spirit of the same reform framework.
The combination of these two types of decisions is telling. While the HPC formally checked a box on the Venice Commission's list, it simultaneously used the same session to push through secondments that run contrary to the spirit of the same reform framework.
CRTA's assessment is that the entire process - from the adoption of the Mrdić laws in January through today's session - amounts to one large abuse, or a series of smaller ones. Each individual decision can be defended on its own terms, but together they constitute a systematic erosion of prosecutorial independence.
It is worth noting that the "positive Venice Commission opinion" the government is celebrating - and citing as grounds for unblocking Serbia's EU integration - is, in fact, a positive opinion on reversing changes the same government introduced just six months ago. This is not progress in rule of law or reform - it is a return to the previous legal framework.
