A delegation from the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe is in Serbia on a working visit today and tomorrow, as part of the preparation of an urgent opinion on the amendments to the judicial laws, the so-called ‘the Mrdić laws’, which have been criticised by the domestic expert community and the opposition, as well as by officials of the European Union, N1 reports.
The Venice Commission delegation will meet at the National Assembly with representatives of the ruling coalition, and then with representatives of the opposition, among whom is Green-Left Front MP Biljana Đorđević, who tells N1 that the mandate of this visit is very specific – the so-called “Mrdić laws”.
‘So that the Venice Commission can prepare that urgent opinion which the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ana Brnabić, requested after the laws were passed,’ Đorđević recalls, adding that opposition representatives will act in a coordinated manner, as they have done in parliamentary sessions and in the extra-parliamentary actions they have taken so far.
“I will remind you that the ZLF, along with the People’s Movement of Serbia and the Movement of Free Citizens, proposed to the Constitutional Court that a procedure be initiated to assess the constitutionality of these laws immediately after they were adopted, and a month later, these three parliamentary groups, along with the SSP and SRCE as well, also submitted bills to annul these laws,” says the ZLF MP.
The authorities, in her words, can choose how to resolve this problem.
‘I simply think that the fact they sought an urgent opinion from the Venice Commission is a message to the international and domestic public that they are, in a way, prepared to perhaps revise these decisions of theirs after facing serious criticism,’ assesses Đorđević.
Abolishing the independence of the Prosecutor’s office
He also recalls that when the amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia concerning the judiciary were being passed, representatives of the authorities boasted of the opinions of the Venice Commission, yet it has now adopted laws that are contrary to some of those recommendations.
‘If it was important to them then, why wasn’t it important for them to demand it sooner?’ asks Đorđević.
The ZLF MP believes that the adoption of the “Mrdić laws” was actually an existential question for the government, and that it was more important and urgent for them to, as she puts it, abolish the independence of the prosecution, especially in the context of the fight against organised crime, as well as the case of Nikola Selaković in the Army General Staff building affair.
“So that was obviously much more important to them, much more important than their reputation in Europe, than the criticism from the European Commission. Now they are trying in a way to justify themselves by saying that this had to happen because of some inefficiencies in the prosecution system itself in the previous period, but if that were really the case, if that were the real reason, it would be down to systemic laws, and that would come from the Ministry of Justice, in which case there would be a public debate,” emphasises Đorđević.
Therefore, he adds, it is important that the Venice Commission also receives a perspective different from the one the regime will give them.
‘And we will try to do that in these 45 minutes (of the meeting with the Venice Commission Delegation, ed. N1) and to provide them with that proposal for a constitutionality assessment which we submitted to the Constitutional Court, and to state all the arguments,’ says the N1 interlocutor.
Đorđević also reminds us that the Serbian representative on the Venice Commission is the President of the Constitutional Court, Vladan Petrov, whom the opposition explicitly requested be recused from the consideration of their initiative to assess the constitutionality of the “Mrdić laws”, because he has already publicly taken a stance on the matter, stating that these solutions are in accordance with the Constitution.
‘I think these are all things that show how they have occupied all the key positions through which we could fight for democracy through the rule of law, which is the name of the Venice Commission, and the goal of living in a normal country,’ emphasises the ZLF MP.
Biljana Đorđević expressed hope that the Venice Commission will deliver its opinion by June, that is, before the start of the regular session of the National Assembly.
(Nedeljnik, 16.03.2026)