Joint Council of Europe/European Union Horizontal Facility Action “Strengthening Legal Guarantees for Independent and Impartial Tribunals” completed a new round of training on detecting and reporting unlawful or undue influences in the Serbian prosecution service.

Following input from civil society, besides prosecutors, the Action now targets prosecutorial assistants as well. Workshop on unlawful and undue influence on the prosecution service was held on 29 May in Vranje for 20 prosecutorial assistants from the Nis appellate region, and one day later in Paracin for another 20 from the Kragujevac appellate region. Assistants from the Novi Sad appellate region attended the training in Zrenjanin on 6 June, and those from Belgrade on 7 June.

Two Council of Europe experts were joined by several members of the State Prosecutorial Council, including Goran Ilic, the Commissioner for Autonomy, who presented the work of the newly-established Commissioner to prosecutorial assistants and explained the possibilities of reaction and protection that it provides with respect to political and other types of inappropriate influences.

Several case studies from Council of Europe member states were discussed, including the European Court of Human Rights case law. Special attention was put on recognising and reacting to internal pressures, and on the media as a source of pressure on one side, and a possible tool for resisting it on the other.