The Assembly has not yet initiated the procedure of selection of the new Commissioner
The Committee for Culture and Information has not yet initiated the procedure of selection of the new Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection and has not received any proposals for the selection of the Commissioner, was stated in the response issued by the National Assembly upon request submitted by YUCOM.
We wish to remind that the mandate of the ex-Commissioner Rodoljub Šabić expired on December 22nd and that 70 civil society organisations, media, business, professional and scientific communities’ representatives sent in November last year a public request to the competent committee for an urgent initiation of a transparent and competitive procedure of selection of the new Commissioner.
After the Committee for Culture and Information had refused to consider the initiative for commencement of a procedure of selection of the new Commissioner, a group of organisations publicly proposed well-defined criteria for selection of candidates. The said document comprises manners of verification whether the candidates are connected to any political party, whether they have violated the law, professional rules and standards as well as whether they possess relevant professional knowledge and experience in the area of data protection and access to information of public importance.
Previous experiences relating to delays in the selection of state authority heads, especially of heads of independent institutions, have had detrimental effects on their work, and consequently on the rights of citizens and the public interest that these institutions are supposed to protect. Therefore, the signatories of this press release once again invite the competent committee to initiate the procedure of selection of the new Commissioner as soon as possible.
Partners for Democratic Change Serbia
Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCBP)
