The Overall Objective of the Project is to contribute to the achievement of the obligations stemming from Chapter 23 - Judiciary and Fundamental Rights, in line with the EU acquis. The Specific Objective of the Action is to contribute to the achievement of the interim benchmarks in the key areas of Chapter 23, in particular in the areas of fundamental rights protection and the fight against corruption.
The Action has the following outputs: preventive anti-corruption measures, repressive anti-corruption measures and fundamental rights protection. The three outputs are interrelated and interconnected to cover all critical areas of the Chapter 23 Action Plan, specifically anti-corruption and fundamental rights. Key partners are: The Ministry of Justice, The Anti-corruption Agency, The Agency for Prevention of Corruption, the prosecution system, courts, The Ministry of the Interior (i.e. The Anti-Corruption Department, The Internal Control Sector, The Financial Investigations Unit), The Ombudsman, The Ministry for Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection and The Ministry of Culture and Information.
Main activities will include but not be limited to the institutional strengthening of the relevant departments of beneficiary institutions to ensure effective application of the regulatory framework; policy advice, including the support to the development and revision of strategic documents; legal advice, including revision of the existing laws and bylaws in line with the strategic framework; and capacity-building of the key target groups through the peer-to-peer exchange of information, best practices and know-how (workshops, trainings, study visits).
The Project strives to maintain the highest standards in training delivery and to establish a sustainable system that will function beyond the Action cycle.The total value of the project is 6,5 million euros, while the EU will allocate 5 million euros and other partners, BMZ and ADC, will co-fund the Action with 1,5 million euros. The duration of the Project is 45 months, from January 2022 to October 2025.
This component is part of the bigger project "EU for the Rule of Law", launched by the EU Delegation to Serbia in 2022. It is a new package of support to the Rule of Law Sector, part of the IPA Programme for Serbia, for a total amount of 20.8 million euros.
Such support aims at accompanying Serbia in meeting the Interim Benchmarks under Chapters 23 and 24 in the coming years. The programme will be ongoing until 2025.