Source: Danas
If it wants to find itself at “White Schengen List", Serbia must pass laws about border protection, foreigners and personal data protection. The Minister of Police, Ivica Dacic, has announced passing of the first two laws in the next year, while the Proposal of the Personal Data Protection Act is already in the Assembly procedure. Its passing would enable exercising and protection of the privacy entitlement, as well as other rights and freedoms pertaining to personal data processing. Currently the Law from 1998 is in force, and according to the words of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, Rodoljub Sabic, not one case has been recorded of protection of the rights based on that law.However, the public fame hasn't been initiated based on ten years of lack of implementation of the Personal Data Protection Act, but because of one Article of the new Proposal. That provision provides for the security bodies to be able to "due to the reasons of state and public safety and until those reasons exist", deny to the body that should protect the personal data, that is, to the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, insight into relevant data, sets of data, even access to the premises.
That has forced the Commissioner Sabic to state that he is ready to submit to the Assembly of Serbia his resignation, if that Article is not deleted from the Law Proposal. He added that he is definitively not ready to support solutions that, instead of securing effective protection of rights, offer unclear things and dilemmas. Practically, the state limits operations of the Commissioner, as an institution, probably the only independent state body that has by its activity made important progress in raising public trust towards state institutions.
Why has then the function of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance been established, if by a new Law Proposal his authorizations are limited? Probably because the state or politician's vanity can not stand receiving criticism on everyday basis from the state body, like the Commissioner, for their lack of work on implementing the current laws. However, chances for changing of the Proposal have now been increased, because the Republic Citizen's Protector has prepared a group of amendments for that law proposal. It isn't necessary to remind that Serbia is lagging a couple of years behind Europe regarding the legal regulations, and exactly due to that passing of the laws that do not reflect democratic principles, do not protect basic human rights and do not reflect the reality in Serbia shall not help in getting closer to the EU.
