The Council of Europe’s Director of Human Rights, representatives of the Execution Department, the Court Registry and the Co-operation Programme Division of the Council of Europe had a high-level exchange in Belgrade with the Minister of Justice and the representatives of the Ministry of Finance of Serbia on 8 May. The delegation also met with the President and judges of the Constitutional Court.

The discussion focused on the ways to move forward with the implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Special focus was put on non-enforcement or delayed enforcement of domestic judicial decisions given in the applicants’ favour against socially/State-owned companies (R. Kačapor group) following the Committee of Ministers’ last decision.

The authorities indicated their commitment to fully executing this group of judgments which would lead towards the resolution of 15 years of pending cases before the Committee of Ministers while “bringing to justice” many Serbian citizens by awarding their outstanding payments.

In addition, during the discussion with the Minister of Justice, Maja Popović, importance of the domestic capacity to respond efficiently to the ECHR judgments was addressed while focusing on avenues of its reinforcement.

The Director of Human Rights, Christophe Poirel, expressed the Council of Europe’s readiness to provide its support, also through its co-operation action, to the Serbian authorities in meeting their international obligations.

The discussion was organised within the action “Strengthening human rights protection in Serbia”,  part of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye”, implemented by the Council of Europe.