In the past two weeks, the competent ministries have opened public consultations on draft laws in four areas covered by negotiation Chapters 23 and 24. These include amendments to the Family Law, as well as three new laws: the Law on Weapons and Ammunition, the Law on Internal Affairs, and the Law on the Processing of Personal Data in the Field of Internal Affairs.
With regard to the implementation of these public consultations, the working groups of the National Convention on the European Union (NCEU) for Chapters 23 and 24 have identified several key issues indicating that the intention of the competent institutions is to formally meet minimum procedural requirements while simultaneously limiting the ability of the public to meaningfully influence the proposed legal solutions. It is particularly concerning that this approach has become a common practice over the past several years.
The NCEU considers this manner of conducting public consultations on laws of exceptional importance to citizens, as well as to Serbia’s EU integration process, to be unacceptable, as it effectively renders public participation meaningless. The Convention calls on the competent institutions to put an end to this practice and to ensure a transparent, inclusive, and substantively high-quality public consultation process that will enable full participation of both expert and broader public and contribute to the adoption of sustainable and harmonized legal solutions. Additionally, the NCEU calls on the European Commission to pay particular attention to assessing the quality of the processes through which the proposed solutions are adopted.
First and foremost, the public has not been adequately informed about the launch of public consultations, apart from the publication of documents in specific sections on the websites of the competent ministries and on the e-Consultations portal, while roundtable discussions were organized as early as the first day of the consultation period, preventing interested stakeholders from preparing and providing meaningful input. Furthermore, the consultations were launched at the end of the working week and include non-working public holidays, thereby further shortening their effective duration, even though minimum standards have formally been met.
An additional issue is the simultaneous organization of consultations on several complex and significant laws. It should be particularly noted that three laws in the field of internal affairs are entirely new and highly extensive, with the Draft Law on Internal Affairs alone containing nearly 300 articles.
The NCEU recalls that in August 2025 it declined an invitation from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to participate in consultations on the then version of the Draft Law on Internal Affairs, considering that, in the context of daily violations of the existing Law on Police, it was pointless to engage in dialogue on a new law. At that time, the Convention insisted on participating in an official public consultation on an equal footing with other interested parties and citizens, which is why sufficient time must be ensured for such a process.
We note that three out of the four laws currently subject to public consultation represent the fulfillment of obligations undertaken by the Republic of Serbia under the Reform Agenda, the adoption of which enables access to EU funds under the Growth Plan. This indicates a clear intention to meet these obligations by June 2026 in order to avoid the loss of funds. However, it is unacceptable that laws in the field of internal affairs are prepared in a non-transparent manner over a long period and then subjected to a short public consultation.
The Reform Agenda assesses not only the adoption of measures but also the manner in which they are adopted and the achievement of their objectives. In the case of the Law on Internal Affairs, these objectives include improving the operational independence of the police and the prevention of torture, although the draft covers a much broader scope. It is also concerning that statements of compliance with the acquis of the European Union, which must accompany draft laws, do not specify the concrete EU regulations with which harmonization is being carried out, even though such regulations do exist.
Working Groups of the NCEU for Chapters 23 and 24
