At the conference entitled “Better Judicial Education for a Stronger Rule of Law” – the close-out event of the EU-funded Project “Enhancing Educational Activities and Improvement of Organizational Capacities of the Judicial Academy”, held today in the Palace of Serbia, the project activities and results were presented.

On its road towards the EU accession, by opening negotiations for Chapter 23, Serbia deeply committed to a thorough reform of the justice sector. Improving the quality of training of judges and prosecutors and its impact in better court decisions is one of the key objectives of the reform process. As a further step in its commitment to remain a partner in the improvement of judicial education, the EU has been supporting the Judicial Academy (JA) of the Republic of Serbia, among other activities, allocating 2 million Euros for the implementation of this project, managed by the Ministry of Finance, Government of the Republic of Serbia, Department for Contracting and Financing of EU Funded Programmes.

With a team of 52 experts from 7 European countries working closely with the Judicial Academy for more than 2 years, the judicial training system was supported, with the following results: the Serbian judiciary is now closer to the European Convention of Human Rights through the new tools provided for judges and prosecutors; the methodology for updating knowledge of judges and prosecutors has been enhanced with new tools for the JA; the initial training for future judges and prosecutors has been upgraded through a better mentoring system; the JA enjoys now a stronger institutional profile within the European Judicial Education System.

A new Judicial Academy website, which development was supported by the project, will make available on line most of these tools, allowing judges and prosecutors to access relevant information from any court building. A Network of Judges and Prosecutors established through the project will provide peer support to facilitate enforcement of the European Convention of Human Rights.

During the conference, the participants were addressed by Mr. Nenad Vujic, director, Judicial Academy, Mr. Dragomir Milojević, President of the Supreme Court of Cassation, Mr. Dusan Carkic, Assistant Minister, Ministry of Finance, HE Mr. Sem Fabrizi, Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia,  Mr. Juan Carlos Da Silva, Project Team Leader.

The results achieved have significantly contributed to the increase of the capacity of the Judicial Academy and to the further alignment of the court system with EU standards, thus guaranteeing a better-quality justice for all citizens of Serbia.