MPs in the Serbian Parliament today passed amendments to the Law on the High Prosecutorial Council (HPC), which align with the recommendations of the Venice Commission. A total of 140 MPs voted in favour of the amendments to the Law on the HPC.
The amendments concern the body responsible for deciding on appeals against mandatory instructions for work and conduct in individual cases, appeals against substitution decisions, and appeals against devolution decisions. According to the amendments, these matters will now be decided by an HPC commission rather than the immediate superior Chief Public Prosecutor.
Amendments and additions to the Law on Public Prosecution were also adopted, specifying the conditions, duration, and procedure for seconding prosecutors to other public prosecutor’s offices, which will be decided by the High Prosecutorial Council (HPC). The duration of the secondment is limited to three years, while the HPC will issue a public call for temporary secondment and must review the grounds for the secondment once a year.
The amendments state that following the termination of the office of the Supreme Public Prosecutor or a Chief Public Prosecutor, the HPC shall appoint an acting official until the newly elected Supreme Public Prosecutor or Chief Public Prosecutor takes office, for a maximum period of one year. Furthermore, the same person cannot be reappointed as an acting official in the same prosecutor’s office.
If the HPC fails to make a decision by the qualified majority prescribed by law (8 out of 11 votes) within 30 days, a decision may be made after the expiry of this deadline with six votes, provided that at least three votes come from members chosen from among public prosecutors and three from prominent lawyers. Members of the HPC by virtue of office – namely the Minister of Justice and the Supreme Public Prosecutor – do not participate in this decision-making process.
A Chief Prosecutor may serve only one term and cannot be re-elected as Chief Public Prosecutor in the same public prosecutor’s office.
It is prescribed that appeals against mandatory instructions for work and conduct in individual cases, appeals against substitution decisions, and appeals against devolution decisions will be decided by the HPC Commission, which must make a decision within eight days. If a decision is not reached, the mandatory instruction, devolution decision, or substitution decision will be deemed revoked.
The amendments more precisely define the competences of the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office in the field of international cooperation, while introducing a new competence for this office to conclude cooperation protocols with the prosecutor’s offices of other countries and international judicial organisations, subject to prior notification of the Minister of Justice.
Regarding appeals against the annual schedule of prosecutors, the amendments provide that the HPC, rather than the immediate superior Chief Public Prosecutor, will decide on these matters.
Additionally, MPs passed amendments to the Law on Judges, specifying that court presidents are elected for a five-year term without the possibility of re-election. The Law amending the Law on Judges, adopted on 28 January 2026, had introduced the possibility for a court president to be re-elected to the position of president of the same court, but this option has been abolished by the new amendments.
Regarding the Law on Judges, the Venice Commission recommended that court presidents should serve only a single term, without the possibility of re-election.
Amendments to the Law on the Organisation and Competence of State Authorities in Combating High-Tech Crime were also passed today, providing that the head of the Special Department for High-Tech Crime shall be appointed by the HPC from among the public prosecutors of a higher public prosecutor’s office or an appellate prosecutor’s office. Furthermore, the head and prosecutors in this department must possess specialised knowledge in the field of information technologies.
MPs of the Serbian Parliament also adopted amendments to the Law on Seats and Territorial Jurisdiction of Courts and Public Prosecutor’s Offices, which provide for the division of the Third Basic Court and the Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office to create a Fourth Basic Court and a Fourth Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office, as well as the establishment of a court unit in Kosjerić.
The only things changing under these amendments are the dates; instead of this year, the establishment of these courts and prosecutor’s offices has been moved to 1 January of next year, and they are scheduled to begin operations in March of that same year. The statement of reasons noted that the Venice Commission (VC) recommended first conducting an analysis of the organisational effects regarding the workload of judicial authorities and the right of access to justice for citizens and legal entities.
Instead of 1 May of this year, the amendments have moved the deadline to 1 January 2027 for passing a provisional act on internal organisation and post systematisation for the newly formed courts and public prosecutor’s offices, while the commencement of operations in these courts and prosecutor’s offices has been shifted from 1 July of this year to 1 March 2027. As stated in the explanatory memorandum, the amendments are necessary to allow the Working Group, formed by a decision of the Minister of Justice to act on the VC’s recommendation, to carry out the required analysis of organisational effects.
It added that sufficient time has been left for the deployment of judges and prosecutors and for securing the technical conditions for these courts and prosecutor’s offices to begin work.
Recess called due to system glitch
At one point during the voting on agenda items of the extraordinary session, the Speaker of the Serbian Parliament, Ana Brnabić, called a 10-minute recess due to system problems.
Voting was interrupted while MPs were voting on members of the Council of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption.
The voting subsequently resumed, after which all items on the agenda for the session, which began on 17 June, were adopted.
In addition to the amendments to the set of judiciary laws, MPs passed healthcare laws relating to transplantation, as well as amendments to the Law on Establishing a Guarantee Scheme and Subsidising a Portion of Interest Rates as a support measure for young people purchasing their first residential property, which increases the total amount of loan guarantees from €600 million to €900 million.
Several loan agreements and contracts relating to infrastructure projects and investments by Srbijagas were also adopted.
Parliament elected Aleksandra Popović as a member of the Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures, following a proposal by the Finance Committee.
Decisions were also made on the termination of office for a member of the Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures and the president of that commission.
The Parliament elected Predrag Knežević, Steva Bajić, Tamara Mišić, and Željko Lazić as members of the Council of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption.
Voting on the 32 agenda items began at 10 am, with 163 out of a total of 250 MPs present.
(Blic, 26.06.2026)