As regards the right of a third party who has not identified itself as a minority shareholder to access information contained in a sale agreement concluded between the parties to a privatization process, one should keep in mind the provisions of Article 4 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia No. 120/04), under which there is a legal assumption of justified importance of every information seeker to access public information and it is incumbent upon public authorities to prove the opposite, if they deem it to be the case. A public authority does not have the option of denying access by proving that the public does not have justified importance to know the information requested if such information concerns cases of jeopardizing or protection of public health and the environment.

A sale agreement concluded between the parties to a privatization process, as a document produced in connection with the Agency's operations, is deemed to be information of public importance within the meaning of Article 2 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance.

The confidentiality mark which is, as you say, generally attached to such agreements is not in itself a sufficient reason to deny access to information contained therein.

In order to preclude or restrict free access to information of public importance, a public authority must be able to prove that this is done to thwart a serious violation of a predominant importance under the Constitution or under a law, as set out in Article 9 of this Law, or to protect the privacy and other personal rights in accordance with Article 14 of the Law.

(The answer is contained in the letter sent to a government body, no. 011-00-23/2006-03 of 20.06.2006.)