As part of the project “Countering Economic Crime in Serbia”, in 2025 the Council of Europe developed a new Methodology for Corruption Impact Assessment of enacted legislation to enable the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) to systematically assess corruption risks and the impact of laws already in force, particularly where corruption proofing had not been carried out during the legislative drafting process. The APC subsequently chose the Law on Healthcare as the first law to which the methodology would be applied. This pilot exercise aimed to identify any areas for improvement before the methodology is used to review other enacted laws.

Following the pilot assessment that encompassed interviews with all stakeholders affected by the Law on Healthcare Protection and surveys that were carried out among healthcare practitioners,  a two-day workshop was held in Belgrade to present the findings of the Corruption Impact Assessment of the Law on Healthcare, as well as to discuss the proposed amendments to the Methodology with representatives of Agency for Prevention of Corruption, the Ministry of Healthcare and civil society organisations. Participants reviewed identified corruption risks and legal gaps within the Law on Healthcare, in particular related to the implementation of Article 234 of the Law, defining gifts and conflict of interests. Recommendations aimed at improving transparency, accountability, reporting mechanisms and institutional controls were also discussed. During the workshop, participants also discussed the scope and practical application of the revised Methodology, stakeholder engagement and its future use in other sectors and legislative areas exposed to corruption risks.

The workshop concluded with a group exercise on applying the revised Methodology to other provisions of the Law on Healthcare.

The activity contributed overall to strengthening the capacity of Serbian institutions to identify and address corruption risks in enacted legislation and to further develop evidence-based tools for corruption prevention in line with European and international standards.

The activity took place within the project “Countering Economic Crime in Serbia”, funded by Sweden, represented by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and implemented by the Council of Europe.