The prEUgovor coalition commented on the Reform Agenda – a plan of measures that the Government of Serbia will undertake in the period from 2024-2027 in order to achieve access to the funds of the European Union Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. The Reform Agenda was adopted at the Government session on October 3, 2024. In addition to the fact that the process of developing the Reform Agenda was not sufficiently transparent and inclusive, the areas included are important and well chosen, but the proposed solutions do not correspond to the scale of the problem.
For 21 measures within the section on Basics, the Government of Serbia is requesting a total of slightly more than 370 million euros. The reform agenda contains measures with half-year deadlines from December 2024 to the end of 2027, and EU payments are expected to follow those deadlines after a positive assessment of fulfillment.
When it comes to the measures from the Basics area, some of them only repeat the measures from the Revised Plan for Chapters 23 and 34, with a postponement of the deadlines for implementation, after the original deadlines have been substantially exceeded.
Precise indicators for monitoring implementation have not been defined for all measures. Some measures are vague or inadequately formulated (possibly due to translation from English to Serbian). All this will make it difficult to implement the Reform Agenda and measure the achieved results. The prEUgovor coalition is of the opinion that the implementation of the Reform Agenda must not further slow down the activities foreseen in the Action Plans for Chapters 23 and 24 and measures from other strategic documents.
The prEUgovor coalition commented on measures concerning the functioning of democratic institutions, combating corruption, striving for fundamental rights, police reform, the fight against organized crime, human trafficking, terrorism and violent extremism, as well as migration.
Regarding fundamental rights, the Reform Agenda states that Serbia has established a comprehensive legal and political framework for gender equality and that the existing law and strategy introduce new and improve existing mechanisms. However, while the document was in draft, the Constitutional Court of Serbia issued a Decision that initiated the procedure to determine the unconstitutionality of the Law on Gender Equality and suspended the execution of individual acts and actions undertaken on the basis of the Law. The reform agenda does not mention this fact, which may have consequences for the "comprehensive legal framework" on which the presented measures are based.
In the mentioned area, the adoption of a "legal package" has been planned with the aim of achieving improvement and significant progress. However, the amendments to the Criminal Code do not contain the solutions that women's organizations proposed to the working group. For example, the definition of rape and sexual violence was not harmonized with the Istanbul Convention, the proposal to make the misuse of a video of sexual content (so-called revenge pornography) a criminal offense was rejected (regardless of the alarming number of these and other crimes caused by the misuse of digital media and the Internet), and the proposal to make femicide a new crime was also rejected.
As for amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure, the right to appeal the status of a particularly sensitive witness is provided for, among other things. If this amendment is adopted, it will violate the level of already realized rights, become another tool of the perpetrator of violence to intimidate the victim, to prolong the already lengthy procedures and, possibly, deter prosecutors and judges from making decisions on the approval of that right.
The adoption of the Action Plan (AP) for the period 2024-2025 for the Strategy for preventing and combating gender-based violence against women and domestic violence (2021-2025) is also foreseen, after a public hearing, by the end of 2024. It remains unclear how the implementation of the planned strategic measures for one year will compensate for the lack of AP for the previous period (as well as for the current year), while meeting the goals set by the Strategy.
According to the Reform Agenda, by the end of 2026, a central record of all types of violence covered by the Istanbul Convention, including domestic violence, should be introduced, a national network of support services for victims and witnesses of crimes should be established in 20 higher courts in Serbia, as well as an increase in the number of service users in the community by licensed service providers by 18%. It should be pointed out that in Serbia there are 25 higher courts and 66 basic ones (174 local self-government units) and that victims and witnesses of criminal acts with elements of violence are often before the basic Prosecutor's offices and courts, as well as that they need support from the moment a criminal complaint is filed, and not only when the trial starts. It remains to be seen how these long-delayed jobs will be realized, and above all, what quality will be the records, service providers and services.
You can read the entire comment of the prEUgovor coalition on the Reform Agenda of the Government of Serbia HERE.
