On Friday 24 April, Ana Brnabić, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, asked the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission to publish an Urgent Opinion on amendments to a set of five laws governing the judiciary and the public prosecutor’s office, adopted on 28 January 2026.
These amendments modify the scope of hierarchical control within the Public Prosecutor’s Office, broaden the circumstances in which provisional appointments and reappointments of public prosecutors and presidents of courts can be used and modify the regime relating to the temporary assignment of public prosecutors.
The Council of Europe’s experts in constitutional law consider that the intention to transfer to the Supreme Council of Public Prosecutors the power to decide on the assignment of public prosecutors is acceptable, but point out several shortcomings in the amendments, which weaken certain guarantees designed to protect the autonomy of the public prosecutor’s office and the independence of the judiciary.
They put forward a number of recommendations to remedy the situation, stressing that legislative amendments of such importance to society should be prepared “with due respect for the principles of transparency, inclusiveness, and democratic debate” which has not been the case.
The Commission welcomes the commitment recently expressed by the Serbian authorities to act on its recommendations.
This Urgent Opinion will be endorsed at the Venice Commission’s plenary session on 12 and 13 June.
Link to the Urgent Opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/lox (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)