Partners for Democratic Change Serbia (Partners Serbia) welcomes the efforts of the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government aimed at initiating the process of amending the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance. Being an organization committed to the values ​​of transparency and openness, which has dealt with the promotion, monitoring of the situation and public advocacy in the field of free access to information of public importance since our establishment, we are aware of the issues in the implementation of the Law, which have left the greatest consequences on bona-fide applicants, i.e. public interest as a whole.

We also point to the fact that the presented proposals, especially when viewed in their entirety and in correlation with each other, diminish the already achieved level of the right of the public to know and leave room for an excessive restriction of this right by authorities. We stress in particular that some of the proposed solutions have not been harmonized with the existing legislative framework.

We emphasize that such solutions partly result from the uniform composition of the Working Group, which, in addition to representatives of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection (hereinafter referred to as: the Commissioner), is made up only of representatives of bodies of public administration, i.e. obligors of the Law.

First of all, we propose that the proposal to reintroduce the instrument of abuse of right be withdrawn, in view of the fact that bodies of public administration have frequently unlawfully used the abuse of right to deny access to information of public importance. The 2021 Report on the Activities of the Commissioner says that in 64% of the complaints which the Commissioner resolved in 2021, the reason for the rejection of requests for access to information of public importance was the instrument of abuse of rights.

We especially emphasize that there are other, more important shortcomings of the Law that have a negative effect on the right of citizens to access information of public importance. The most important issues in this field have for years been: failure to enforce the Commissioner's decisions, inefficient inspection supervision of the implementation of the Law, as well as impeded access to information about the operation of bodies of public administration in relation to which the Commissioner has no jurisdiction in the complaint procedure (Government, President, National Assembly and others).

In view of everything presented above, and primarily:

• The possibility that proposed solutions might result in greater abuse of rights than the currently existing.
• The fact that proposed solutions are not in accordance with the legal order.
• The missed opportunity to address all problems in the implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance.
• The need to fulfill GRECO recommendations.
• The need to create space for dialogue and consensus on mapped issues and proposed solutions.

We invite the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government to redefine the process of amending the Law, to include a wider circle of stakeholders in the Working Group, and to use the process of amending of this Law to create good and sustainable solutions that will not be detrimental for the achieved level of the right of the public to know.

All Partners Serbia comments to the Law on Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance are available here: