Honouring of obligations and commitments by Serbia
Reply to Recommendation
| Doc. 12034
| 29 September 2009
- Author(s):
- Committee of Ministers
- Origin
- adopted
at the 1066th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (23 September 2009) 2009 - Fourth part-session
- Reply to Recommendation
- : Recommendation 1867
(2009)
1. The Committee of
Ministers welcomes the Parliamentary Assembly’s recommendation and
its spirit of constructive engagement. The Committee of Ministers
fully shares the Parliamentary Assembly’s support for Serbia’s European
aspirations and for Serbia’s continuing reform process. The Committee
of Ministers also reiterates its appeal to the Serbian authorities
to ensure full co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal
for the former Yugoslavia, including the arrest and transfer of
the two remaining fugitive indictees, which is one of the outstanding
accession commitments to the Council of Europe.
2. In conducting its regular monitoring of Serbia’s compliance
with its accession obligations and commitments on behalf of the
Committee of Ministers, the Rapporteur Group on Democracy (GR-DEM)
takes full account of the relevant resolutions of the Parliamentary
Assembly, notably
Resolution
1661 (2009), as well as the reports and recommendations of the other
Council of Europe institutions and bodies. The Committee of Ministers
considers that Serbia has very nearly fulfilled all the formal,
quantifiable commitments it undertook upon accession to the Council
of Europe. It has therefore decided to orient its monitoring process
towards a dialogue-based regular stocktaking of co-operation and
progress with the fulfilment of statutory commitments and democratic
processes.
3. Serbia currently participates in all the relevant Council
of Europe regional programmes, including Joint Programmes with the
European Commission concerning special prosecutors, social security
co‑ordination, architectural and archaeological heritage, as well
as in the multilateral programme “Network of Schools of Political
Studies”. Recently completed assistance programmes funded by voluntary
contributions include a three-year project on the reform of the
prison system, a three-year project on human rights training of
judges, prosecutors and lawyers and a one-year project providing
support to the Constitutional Court. Two European Commission/Council
of Europe Joint Programmes on strengthening higher education and
on the promotion of freedom of media have also recently been completed.
Another Joint Programme on support to the parliament has been extended
until October 2009. A new European Commission/Council of Europe
Joint Programme to support local self-government was launched in
May 2009. A new project, financed by the Human Rights Trust Fund,
will assist the Serbian authorities in ensuring execution of judgments
of the European Court of Human Rights and enforcement of domestic
court decisions.
4. In light of Serbia’s recognised administrative capacity to
implement reform processes and projects, the Committee of Ministers
has noted that assistance for Serbia increasingly takes the form
of advice and expertise. The Serbian authorities are encouraged
to make the best possible use of this type of co-operation, which
is one of the most important benefits of Council of Europe membership.
The Secretariat is working closely with the Serbian authorities
to develop new targeted co-operation programmes, including a project
to assess the implementation of the judicial reforms in Serbia and
two new European Commission/Council of Europe Joint Programmes,
within the framework of the EU’s Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
(IPA), to deal with money laundering and with the confiscation of
the proceeds of crime and the financing of terrorism.