Press Releases - Archive

The conference topics were the modernization of legislation for personal data protection in Europe and the cooperation with the EU in improving the national laws and practices in the area of data protection. During the two conference days, the participants discussed the work on modernizing of Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data and the Additional Protocol, about the EU Directive on Data Protection, and about efforts to develop new regulations for the protection of personal data in the EU and the risk assessments.

Representatives of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection presented the Improvement of Personal Data Protection project that the Commissioner is implementing with the Information Commissioner of the Republic of Slovenia, financed from IPA funds for Serbia.

The implementation of the Improvement of Personal Data Protection project started in April 2012 (SR/2009/IB/JH/01TWL), the so-called Twinning Light, financed by the EU from IPA 2009 funds.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection sent a letter to the President of the High Judiciary Council and to the Minister of Justice, expressing disatisfaction and concern because of the lack of steps he expected to see taken, after his previous warning that was intended to focus their attention to, to put it mildly, the abstruse situation regarding the actions of the First Basic Court in Belgrade in case no. 9-И-26531/11.

In assessing that the absence of these steps, may they be due to lack of will or lack of power, can have harmful and far-fetched consequences that are much beyond the importance of a court case, the Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic added:

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection estimates that the rise of already kosistently large number of complaints that the citizens, the media and others submit to the Commissioner indicates a disturbing attitude of many state bodies to the rights defined by the Free Access to Information Law and Personal Data Protection Law.

While stating that the so-called "election atmosphere" may perhaps explain such an attitude, but not justify it, the Commissioner stressed that the primary, basic task of the executive branch is the execution of laws, and the realization and protection of citizen's rights within that execution, underlining that the omission to fulfill this obligation cannot be justified by anything.

Rodoljub Sabic said the following in relation to this issue:

Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Rodoljub Sabic has sent to the Ministry of Finance - Tax Administration a Warning in which he shows that the Tax Administration in the implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance is for a longer time now continuously breaking not just the provisions of this Law, but also provisions of the Law on Data Secrecy and the Personal Data Protection Act.