Аnnouncement

The Association of Judicial Associates of Serbia hereby informs its members that the Presidency made a decision to leave the consultative meetings of the Ministry of Justice regarding amendments to the Constitution, and join other professional and non-governmental organizations. In addition to the good cooperation that we had since the founding of the AJAS with the Ministry of Justice, the Presidency made such a decision, primarily because of the interests of judicial and public prosecutorial assistants and a justifiable fear that the changes in the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia will be made so that Judicial Academy is introduced as a constitutional category, that will in the current situation, forever stop the possibility for associates to be elected for judicial and public prosecutorial functions. This attitude is primarily derived from the constant statements in public made by the Alumni Club of the Judicial Academy that the Judicial Academy will become a constitutional category. Bearing in mind that APSS also participated in projects that deal with these analysis, which, according to our knowledge, isn’t recommended, we found ourselves in a delicate situation to participate in consultative meetings that can lead to the final closure of the professional fate of the associates besides the unique opposition of the entire professional public. If AJAS receives assurances in the form of a concrete draft from the Ministry of Justice that the Judicial Academy will not become a constitutional category, we will be open to further dialogue.

AJAS gave comment to daily newsapaper Danas regarding the newest events in the judiciary which you can read here.

Representatives of AJAS Nina Pasalic Petrovic and Sanja Zivanovic, by the invitation of UNICEF, participated at the conference 'Improving the Rights of the Child through Strengthening the Judicial and Social Protection System in Serbia', which gathered a large number of professionals from the field, and emphasized the very important project of mobile units for assistance to victims who in many respects will help the courts and public prosecutors in their work.

In October, APSS representative participated in the final conference of the EU Twinning Project 'Strengthening the Capacities of the High Judicial Council and the State Prosecutor's Council'. The Association of Judicial Associates of Serbia was pleased to participate with eminent international experts in the project and with their representatives Nina Nicovic and Nada Djordjevic to provide objective and professional information about judicial and public prosecutorial associates, issues related to their status as well as the choice of judges and public prosecutors functions. Although the project with its experts from the judiciary of Spain and Greece very objectively mapped the current situation in the judiciary of Serbia, and the selection of candidates from several categories: associates, participants in the initial training of the Judicial Academy and lawyers, representatives of AJAS have drawn the attention of EU experts to some of the most pressing issues in addition to excellent mapping of problematic issues of election of judges and public prosecutors that the project has done. The status of judicial and public prosecutorial assistants is the most sensitive and, in our opinion, still a controversial issue when we are talking about the introduction of the Judicial Academy as the only point of entry into the judicial and public prosecutor's office. We have highlighted this for project experts for several reasons. In order for the academy, under the authority of the HJC and SPC, to become the only point of entry into these functions, first of all the following needs to be provided: a detailed analysis of the number of judicial and prosecutorial associates in the judiciary, which is the percentage of their outflow and employment of new ones, and vacancies of judicial posts for the next 10 years. Bearing in mind that such crucial analysis still do not exist in our judiciary, we pointed out to the experts in the project, especially for the quota proposal, in which the associates would have an advantage over the academy trainee, as well as the time period in which it have been done. Any determination of such an extremely important factor without the aforementioned analysis would only further jeopardize the position of judicial and public prosecutorial associates and lead to even greater distrust of a lasting and comprehensive solution. We also stressed that entering the judicial and public profession must always exist for the associates.

AJAS representatives Zeljko Zilovic and Nina Nicovic participated in the round table of the Ministry of Justice in connection with the changes of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia regarding the expertise of the holders of judicial functions. The representatives of the AJAS presented the position of the Association and emphasized that: A Judicial Academy should not become a constitutional category, it still does not fulfil its legal obligations to hold special training for judicial associates and continuous training for judges, and that the process of evaluating the work of judges and public prosecutors has deficiencies which is explained in more detail in a written attachment to the Ministry of Justice that you can read here

Representative of Association of judicial associates of Serbia has attended the session of National Convent about European Union connected to presenting the report on Action plan for Chapter 23. Focus of the report as well as the discussion was on Constitutional changes from the aspect of public prosecutors office, its independence and its relationship with the police.

Dear colleagues on August 10th daily newspaper Danas issued an article about newest decision of the Association of judicial associates of Serbia regarding the submitted initiatives to the Constitutional Court of Serbia for the Rulebooks of the HJC and SPC, as well as the Laws on judges, public prosecutors office, Judicial Academy which you can read here.

AJAS Vice President Ivana Slavnić participated, as a representative of AJAS, at a round table organized by the Ministry of Justice on the subject of Constitutional Changes. AJAS has presented its opinion exhaustively stating what is expected from the upcoming changes to the Constitution of Serbia and estimated that this is yet another opportunity by the Ministry of Justice, as part of the Action Plan for Chapter 23, that provided an open dialogue on the reform of the judiciary and its true independence.

The representative of the AJAS, Secretary, Jelena Paravinja participated in the conference of the Judges Association of Serbia "; The experience of professional associations of judges in preserving the independence of the judiciary "; which were discussed from a point of important aspects of the independence of the judiciary and the role of professional associations and their constant vigilance over events which they can endanger it. APSS representative in her contacts at the conference emphasized the importance of timely action of professional associations related to such events as well as the introduction of all court personnel with the activities undertaken.

Once again we remind that AJAS, made comments on amendments to the Law on Judges, Law on Public Prosecution and the Law on the Judicial Academy, in June 2015 which are still on the site and Facebook profile. For these objections the Association has received the support of the Judges Association of Serbia, Association of Public Prosecutors and Deputy Public Prosecutors of Serbia, Belgrade Bar Association, the Bar Association of Serbia support and activities that were reported by daily newspaper Danas and Politika. After these remarks representatives of judicial and public prosecutors associates were allowed to participate in the working group for drafting the Rulebook of the HJC for the first election of judges and the Rulebook of the SPC for the selection of deputy public prosecutors to try to find a fair solution for the associates. Taking into account recent developments Association will await the final decision of the Constitutional Court of Serbia regarding the initiative for assessing the constitutionality of the Rulebook of HJC and SPC to the first appointment for the judicial / public prosecutorial function, and depending on the decision will go to all local and international instances to protect the interests of judicial and public prosecutors associates.

Dear colleagues we are announcing regarding the Constitutional Court decision on the adoption of an interim measure for the validity of the Rulebook of State Prosecutorial Council that AJAS's proposals during the working group for drafting the Rulebook were not accepted and the current controversy over the same is not surprising. The Association will wait for the final decision of the Constitutional Court regarding both initiatives of the Alumni Club of the Judicial Academy for assessing the constitutionality of the SPC and the HJC Rulebooks. The Association of Judicial Associates of Serbia will pay special attention to the decision of the CC about the validity of the Rulebook of High Judicial Council whose draft is made largely on the proposals of this association and its representatives and, in accordance with that, will take all legal means to protect the interests of the associates as well as to protect the legal continuum that is persistently demolished to the detriment of the associates because of the absence of a genuine consensus and an objective view of all stakeholders.

Dear colleagues, we would like to inform you that AJAS has submitted to the Ministry of Justice, within the given deadline, an explanation for the forthcoming changes to the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia in which, among other things, it took the following stance about: abolition of the three-year "probationary" of judges who were first elected to that function, the permanence of the function of deputies public prosecutor's office, the limitation to the decision-making capacity of the Minister of Justice as a member of the High Judicial Council (HJC), the expulsion of a member of the HJC from the ranks of the president of the relevant parliamentary committee, the jurisdiction of the HJC and State Prosecutorial Council (SPC) on the selection and dismissal of judges / public prosecutors-without the participation of the National Assembly, the election of the Presidents of the courts and President of High Court of Cassation by the HJC, clear enumeration of the reasons for the dismissal of judges / public prosecutors as well as the conflict of interests with the judicial and public prosecutorial function, stance that the President of the HJC should be elected by that the body, AJAS supports that a member of the HJC should be from the ranks of distinguished lawyers (representatives of lawyers, professors and professional organizations), and to determine even more precisely the case/range of the constitutional complaint. AJAS has dealt with legal analyzes of the constitutional framework regarding the judiciary of the Republic of Serbia in order that the given public discussion, within the given deadline, is meaningful and constructive. Association of judicial associates of Serbia would like to express satisfaction that Judicial Academy hasn't become a Constitutional category and that AJAS has contributed significantly to such stance with its representative Nada Djordjevic within the working groups that dealt with improvement of its (JA) work. Recommendations of AJAS have been adopted and incorporated within the National strategy for the reform of the judiciary.

AJAS representative participated in the workshop "Gender violence and abuse of firearms" organized by the Center for Policy Research, as part of a project supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Serbia. The same research is presented on the existence of femicide in Serbia, the latest legislation related to violence in the past, measures to prevent it, during which representative of AJAS presented constructive solutions related to the contradictory provisions of the law in the field of a single database for all institutions and the appointment of a proxy, legal respresentative, to the victims.

On June 7, AJAS representatives took part in a meeting with experts from the European Commission for Chapter 23 in the EU Delegation in which they expressed the views of the AJAS regarding the issues of training judges and public prosecutors, the lack of training for the associates within Judicial Academy in terms of conducting training obliged by law for them, and the insufficient presence of the associates on crucial seminars related to the latest legislative changes, especially in the segment of European legislation. The objective of exchanging experiences and constructive solutions at that meeting was within the scope of the work of the Expert mission-training at the Judicial Academy and how to improve it.

At an extraordinary Assembly of AJAS that was held on April 05th this year Jelena Miljkovic Gligorijevic has been elected for the president, while the former president and co-founder of AJAS Nina Nicović has been elected for an honorary member considering the contribution to the improvement of the status of judicial and public prosecutor assistant since the foundation of the Association of Judicial Associates of Serbia. Ivana Slavnic has been elected for the vice president of AJAS, Jelena Paravinja for the Secretary while Sanja Zivanovic was elected as a new member of the Presidency.

Dear colleagues we would like to inform you that the extraordinary Assembly of AJAS will be held on April 5th 2017 in 16:00 at conference hall Monokl, street Skadarska 38, Belgrade. We invite all colleagues that are members of Association of judicial associates of Serbia to come and take part in the Assembly.

By kindness of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Rule of Law department AJAS has been invited to familiarize as much as possible, with the professionals in the Serbian judiciary, newest training in the Rule of Law, MATRA patrol, which you can apply for by March 23. We encourage the members of AJAS to apply considering the particular aspect of the training concern Integrity of civil servants which is in special focus of work AJAS does and its members. You can read about the details of the training here: DOC1 DOC2

Representatives of AJAS participated on a seminar organized by Paragraf on newest law regulations in the area of Criminal law, with a special consideration regarding the implementation of a Criminal Procedure Code. During the seminar contacts have been made with the lecturers and organizers regarding future cooperation in the area of training for the judicial and public prosecutors associates.

Daily newspaper Politika issued an article about the negative outflow of legal professionals from the Serbian judiciary which you can read here ovde

President of AJAS, Nina Nicovic participated on round table '' Position of victims in the criminal proceedings in Serbia'' orginized by YUCOM in the National Assembly. Representative of AJAS stressed several key points in order to improve status of victims in the criminal proceedings:amendments to the law so that these cases are dealt with urgency, that the case is not subjected to frequent changes of presiding judge-which leads to a longer duration of the procedure, and to create joint IT system of courts, public prosecution office and the police so that the court can quickly come to the information wether that the defendant is previously convicted of offenses of the same type, which is of particular importance in cases of domestic violence and sexual offenses against children. TV N1 report on this issue you can watch here

Representatives of AJAS Nina Nicović and Jelena Paravinja attended the meeting with the president of the National Association of Mediators Serbia, Blazo Nedic, on the occasion of concretizing the cooperation that started between the two organizations in 2014. The agreement on cooperation of AJAS and NUMS states that in order to improve the mediation process as a faster, more efficient and cheaper ways of resolving disputes, and improving professional knowledge and skills of judicial and public prosecutor associates, members of the AJAS, two associations agreed to continue good business cooperation and promotion activities envisaged in the agreement. Bearing in mind that continuous improvement of professional knowledge and skills are of great importance to the judicial and public prosecutorial associates this agreement will help that they are included in the mediation basic training of - with special benefits payments, seminars, panel discussions, lectures that will help promote mediation and to enable assistants perform mediation as licensed mediators.

President of AJAS Nina Nicović and Deputy Minister of Justice, Department for European Integration and International Projects, Čedomir Backović, held a meeting on 20 January 2017. AJAS representative stressed the need to continue the good cooperation between the Association and the Ministry of Justice and participation in working groups that are of key importance for keeping the judicial and public prosecutor associates inside the Serbian judiciary, given the existence of a negative trend outflow of quality personnel because of low salaries of the associates. AJAS will continue to monitor and analyze the implementation of the Action Plan for Chapter 23 and make concrete proposals to the Ministry for the promotion of employment status of the associates.

Represenative of AJAS Nina Nicović attended the conference '' Capacity building for advocacy actions in criminal proceedings '', organized by Partners for Democratic Change Serbia and the Bar Association of America. The conference highlighted solutions to improve the existing CPC, as well as the Criminal Code, given by the experts and encouraged discussions that would lead to improvement of issues in the CPC presented by members of the legal profession.

Representative of AJAS participated in the presentation of Ministry of Justice's report on implementation of Action Plan for chapter 23 which was attended by the Ministry of Justice Nela Kuburovic, Ambassador of EU in Serbia Michael Davenport, assistant of minister of MoJ department for European integration Mr Čedomir Backović, as well as many of the representatives of international and proffesional organizations and NGO sector.

Association of judicial associates of Serbia held on Wednesday 21 December an Annual Assembly and elected new leadership. For the President of the APSS Nina Nicović was selected, for the position of Vice President Jelena Miljkovic Gligorijević, while former President Zak Pavlovic, as well as members of the Presidency Nada Djordjevic and Snezana Marinkovic, were elected honorary members for their great contribution in improving the status of the judicial associates. Members of AJAS/APSS supported the current work of the leadership that presented following activities and stressed the necessity of participation in the working group of the Ministry of Justice which are directly related to salaries of judicial and public prosecutor associates which is at this point crucial for them to remain in the system. Regarding the subject AJAS has already in November, adressed the issue in the letter to the Ministry of Justice.

Dear collegues on the web site of HJC you can find the published Rulebook on evaluation of qualification, competence and worthiness of candidates for the first election of judges, which you can read here

Regarding the text of Alumni club of Judicial Academy about the annulled general call for judges, Association of Judicial Associates of Serbia has presented its position in daily newspaper Danas which you can read here

Regarding the annulled genral call for judges daily newspaper Danas issued an article in which representative of AJAS presented the position of the Association regarding the issue at hand,which you can read here.

Representative of AJAS has participated on international conference of Judge's Association of Serbia "Judicial function and freedom of opinion" held on September 27 in Hotel Palace

Representatives of AJAS held a meeting with Eugenio Turco,judge from Italy,Sector for international cooperation, Anti-corruption Agency,Twinning project "Prevention and fight against corruption" and emphasized the necessity of transparent and objective election of judges and public prosecutors.

Representatives of AJAS participated in a meeting with experts of Twinning project of EU which concerns analysis of models of election of judges and public prosecutors.

Dear colleagues, AJAS has succeeded with propositions that the status of civil servants in the judiciary, judicial and public prosecutors associates, is separated from the generic term of civil employees and with it improves its work related status. In the following text you can read about the new law which will improve an overall status of the associates which was published on web site of RTS which you can read here

Representatives of AJAS held a meeting on June 8th with representatives of Managing Board of Bar Association of Belgrade during which they represented a proposal of the Association on the draft of Rulebook of the election of judges/deputy public prosecutors in the working group of HJC and SPC. After the meeting Bar Association of Belgrade wrote an official letter to the SPC to involve lawyers to the working group for the draft of Rulebook for election of deputy public prosecutors.

Daily newspaper "Danas" wrote an article about adopted recomendations on the improvement of the position of judicial and public prosecutors associates which you can read here

Representatives of AJAS Zak Pavlovic, Jelena MIljkovic-Gligorijevic and Danijela Spasic attended the first meeting of the working group of High Judicial Council for the making of Rulebook on the first election of judges.

Association of judicial associates of Serbia had a pleasure to cooperate in project of Partners for democratic change Serbia and USAID as a part of the expert working group, with its representative Nina Nicovic, participate in the making of Model Rulebook on standards of anonimization of data in court rullings which you can read in a electronic version here here.

Representatives of AJAS Nada Djordjevic and Nina Nicovic held a meeting on March 4th with Borja Jimenez, resident Twinning advisor at the HJC and SPC, public prosecutor of Cordoba, Spain, and a group od judges and public prosecutors from Spain, Greece and Portugla during which analysis of AJAS were presented on all the challenges in selection of the best candidates for judges and public prosecutors in the Serbian judiciary especially from the aspect of judges and public prosecutors associates.

Association of judicial associates of Serbia supports efforts of the Syndicate of judciary in protecting the rights and overall status of state employees in the Serbian judiciary regarding the cut backs of jobs in the state sector. Syndicate of judiciary has organized an preemptive strike on Monday January 11th from 12:05 hours untill 13:05 hours in all courts and public prosecutors office's in Serbia.

In daily newspaper "Danas" an article was issued concerning newest amendments to Law on judges, Law on public prosecutor office's,Law on Judicial Academy that was passed through by the National Assembly which you can read here

Representative of AJAS Nina Nicovic participated in the December conference of Ministerial council of OSCE that was presided by Serbia.

Representative of AJAS Nina Nicovic has participated on November 12th in the panel organized by magazine "VREME" concerning the current state of the Serbian judiciary which you can see here

Article about obejctions AJAS made to the draft Law on salaries in public sector in daily newspaper Danas you can read here.

Representatives of AJAS Zak Pavlovic, Nada Djordjevic, Jelena Miljkovic Gligorijevic i Nina Nicovic participated on 17.10.2015. in the celebration of the 129 years of Bar Association of Belgrade during which contacts have been made with the regional and international Bar Associations for further cooperation.

Representative of AJAS Nina Nicovic has participated in the session of National Convent for EU on 28.10.2015. in the Serbian National Assembly during which a need for further progress in the set of judicial laws has been stressed in light of the opening of the chapter 23 which directly impact judicial and public prosecutors associates.

Dear colleagues we have a pleasure to inform you that Association of judicial associates of Serbia from October 2015 has became a member of the SEKO mechanism for chapters 23 and 24.

Dear colleagues we have a pleasure to inform you that from this week, by approval of Ministry of Justice,web site of the Association: www.apss.rs is available in the entire courts and public prosecutors network in Serbia, as one of the approved web sites which can be reached through that closed network to the internet. In order to follow the news from our web site all you need to do is to type the web site's address in the internet search area of the judicial computer that function inside of the judicial network.

In the daily newspaper ''Politika'' an article was issued under the headline ''False trials as an exam for real judges and public prosecutors'' which you can read in a scanned version ovde

Statement of Bar Association of Belgrade concerning amendments of Law on judges, public prosecutors and Judicial Academy which you can read here

Representative AJAS participated in the session of the National Convention on the European Union, organized by YUCOM, where the latest, the fourth draft of the Action Plan for Chapter 23 was presented and on which AJAS will give its commentaries.

Representatives of AJAS also participated at the conference of the Judges Association of Serbia and the OSCE on '' Harmonization of court practice-relation of legal certainty and judicial independence '' on 10.07.2015. in hotel Radisson Blu Old Mill which presented all of the challenges and possible solutions on the topic of harmonization of court practice in the Serbian judiciary, with special emphasis on the practice courts in Austria, Italy and Germany presented by the judges of these countries.

In the daily newspaper '' Dana '' an article was published about the AJAS meeting with representatives of the departments of the Rule of Law of various Embassies and international organizations, in the Embassy of Finland in Serbia, which you can read here

Representatives of the AJAS Zak Pavlovic, Nina Nicovic and Pavle Brkic had a meeting , on July 6, 2015, together with the President of the Judges Association of Serbia Dragana Boljevic and president of the Association of Public Prosecutors and Deputy Public Prosecutors of Serbia Goran Ilic, at the Embassy of Finland in Serbia with departments of Rule of Law of various Embassies and international organizations on which AJAS presented the objections to the amendmenst of set of judicial laws which are also supported by the Bar Association of Serbia and Belgrade.

In daily newspaper Danas an article was issued under a headline ''Which school a judge must finish?'' about the divide in the professional public about the newest drafts in the amendments on set of judicial laws which you can read here

Representatives of the AJAS Nada Djordjevic, Pavle Brkic and Nina Nicovic had a meeting with the Ambassador of Finland to Serbia Pekka Orpana and Political Advisor of the Embassy Krajnovic Jovana where they presented the latest objections of the Association on the draft of amendments to the Law on Judges, Law on Public Prosecution and of the Judicial Academy and the unique support AJAS received from all of the major expert associations. At the meeting, they mentioned a solution for the status of associates as well as the best mechanism for providing the selection of the best candidates for the judicial and prosecutorial functions and experience of the judiciary in Finland.

Representatives of the AJAS Nina Nicovic and Pavle Brkic had a meeting with Holger Hembach,Legal Adviser/Judicial Reform Rule of Law and Human Rights Department and Dina Dobrkovic, national legal advisor, OSCE, at which they discussed the latest objections of the Association on the draft of the amendments to the Law on Judges, Law on Public Prosecution and the Law on Judicial Academy as well as unique support AJAS received from all of the major expert associations. AJAS representatives have emphasized the need for withdrawal of the controversial draft and the formation of working groups that will consist of all relevant representatives of the professional public in order to create solutions that will be a true and lasting consensus on the selection of the best candidates for the positions of judges and public prosecutors.

Representative of AJAS Nina Nicovic had a meeting with Alexander Momirov,Senior Policy Advisor | Rule of Law, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Serbia, related to the newest objections of the Association on the draft of the amendments to the Law on Judges, Law on Public Prosecution and the Law on Judicial Academy as well as unique support AJAS received from all of the major expert associations. During the meeting it was also discussed about the already existing solutions offered by the Association in relation to the work of the Judicial Academy and participation of the associates in it as well as the best mechanisms for selecting the best candidates on judicial and prosecutorial functions.

In daily newspaper ''Politika'' an article was issued on Sunday 21st of June that speaks about the support that the judicial and public prosecutorial associates got, through the work of Association of judicial associates of Serbia, from Judge's Association of Serbia, Association of public prosecutors and deputy public prosecutors of Serbia, Bar Association of Belgrade and Bar Association of Serbia, which you can read here

Representatives of the AJAS met with representatives of Judges Association of Serbia, Association of Public Prosecutors and Deputy Public Prosecutors of Serbia, Bar Association of Belgrade and the Bar Association of Serbia. At those meetings, the Association of judicial associates of Serbia has received an absolute support for the objections to the amendments to the Law on Judges and the Law on Public Prosecutor's office which places candidates from the beginners training of the Judicial Academy in a privileged position compared to all the other candidates to judicial and public prosecutor's function. In fact, with the latest changes and amendments to these laws they are the only ones that do not need to take the exam before the commission of the High Judicial Council and the State Prosecutorial Council and prove their expertise, competence and worthiness. With such amendments judicial and public prosecutor's associates as well as lawyers are placed in a discriminatory position, as categories of candidates who actually have the most experience in practice. Remarks that were submitted yesterday to the Ministry of Justice and solutions AJAS will soon be posted on the website, facebook and twitter profile AJAS.

In daily newspaper ''Politika'' an article was issued about judicial associates which you can read here

Representative of AJAS Nada Djordjevic participated in a conference at the Hotel Radisson Blue-old mill, where the opinion of the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law, the Directorate for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, was presented on the Law on Judicial Academy and the Rulebook of the State Prosecutorial Council . At the conference representatives of the Association presented the opinion of AJAS on the above Law on Judicial Academy and Rulebook of the SPC and how the participation of judicial and public prosecutor associates can be secured in the work of the Judicial Academy as well as the proper evaluation of their vast practical experience when applying for future judicial functions.

Representatives of AJAS, Nada Djordjevic and Nina Nicovic, met with Sanja Torov, Policy Officer to the British embassy in Belgrade for the Rule of Law, on which they exchanged views of the Association for the latest draft of the Action Plan for Chapter 23 of the Ministry of Justice, the position of judicial and public prosecutor's associates in the Serbian judiciary as well as possible solutions for their election to the judicial and prosecutorial functions, especially from the aspect of training on Judicial Academy.

Representative of AJAS Nina Nicovic attended on 04/15/2015. meeting of the National Convent, Working Group for Chapter 23, which was held in the National Assembly, organized by YUCOM, at which,among other things, AJAS comments on the second draft of the Action Plan chapter 23 were presented and an overlook of the third draft, which at that time was partially presented to members of the working group. Considering that in the meantime third draft of the Action Plan for Chapter 23 was completed comments of AJAS will be posted as soon as possible on the website, facebook profile as well as Twitter.

Representatives of AJAS Vera Kresoje and Nina Nicovic attended a meeting of the National Convent about EU and Center for development of nonprofit sector, session of working group of public procurement held in National Assembly.

Representatives of AJAS Nina Nicovic, Vera Kresoja and Ivana Slavnic attended a meeting with Ivana Ramadanovic Vainomaa and Dina Dobrkovic, national legal advisors of OSCE, represented newest opinions on SPC draft Rulebook (key points of the commentary), key points on the commentary of second draft Action plan for chapter 23, and commentary of Judicial Functional Review by World Bank.

Representatives of AJAS Nada Djordjevic, Nina Nicovic, Ivana Slavnic and Vera Kresoja have met on Monday 30th of March with Mirjana Cvetkovic, legal officer of Delegation of EU in Serbia. Representatives presented suggestions for the improvement of the financial and overall status of the judicial and public prosecutor's associates as well as additional contribution for the development of criteria for the evaluation of the associates for the appointment to the judicial function.Further development of cooperation of AJAS with the Delegation of the EU in Serbia were explored as well.

On Tuesday, 17th of February, a column was published within the addition "Law" in the daily newspaper "Danas" regarding the current position of the judicial and public prosecutors associates that you can read here

A representative of AJAS met on Monday December 1st with Maurizio Salustro, team leader of the project '' Implementation of the new Criminal Procedure Code of Serbia '', which is funded by the EU and implemented by a consortium led by B & S Europe, and Ana Petrovic, legal adviser, during which representative of AJAS stressed a great need for training of all judicial and public prosecutor assistants, who are engaged in this particular legal field, and asked for participation in the above mentioned training that could be of great professional for the associates and the judicial system in Serbia.

Representatives of the AJAS met on Thursday 11/27/2014 with Blazo Nedic, program director of Partners for Democratic Change Serbia, President of the National Association of Mediators Serbia where they discussed the possibility of future cooperation, as well as the options for active participation of members of the AJAS in the exchange of experiences and opinions with the above mentioned organizations.

Representative AJAS/APSS attended the coordination meeting of the Anti-Corruption Agency and the Office for Cooperation with civil society organizations (OCD) organized on Wednesday the 19th of November in Palace of Serbia in order to actively participate and exchange views regarding the contribution that the Association of judicial associates of Serbia can give in the establishment of a permanent coordination between the Anti corruption Agency and OCD in the fight against corruption in Serbia.

On Saturday 25th of October Constituting Assembly of Serbian National Association of Mediators was held. Representative AJAS was present at it. It was agreed with the president of that association- Blazo Nedic that an official meeting should be held between NUMS and AJAS on which future cooperation will be discussed.

On Tuesday 23rd of September representative of AJAS had a meeting with UNDP representative, Olivera Puric, where newest developments on the issue of associates were presented as well the news from the MOJ working groups.

Nada Djordjevic, member of the presidency of AJAS, on 17.09.14. has participated on a round table organized by Judge's Association of Serbia and BIRODI on the subject of " Enhancing the integrity of the courts in Serbia" where the newest research on that subject were analyzed.

For daily newspaper ''Danas'' vice president of AJAS/APSS spoke about what training should be introduced into the Serbian judiciary in order to avoid the appeals of the Serbian citizens to the European court of Justice in Strasbourg.

Participation of AJAS/APSS in the international conference in training of judges and public prosecutors

Representatives of the Association of judicial associates of Serbia, Zak Pavlovic, Jelena Miljkovic Gligorijevic and Nina Nicović participated in an international conference on training of judges and public prosecutors on Friday 4.07.2014. in Belgrade, organized by the Judges' Association of Serbia and the Association of Public Prosecutors and Deputy Public Prosecutors of Serbia. Special attention at the conference was dedicated to the very entry to the judicial profession, according to the models that exist in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and how these countries have evaluated the experience of people who are already in the judiciary system, like judicial and public prosecution assistants, or those who were already engaged in professions related to law such as lawyers. The key point was made at the conference confirming that all the foreign models of the Judicial Academy in their functioning took into account the difference in work experience among people with less experience that applied for judicial and prosecutorial functions and those who have already been in this profession. APSS/AJAS representatives at the conference gave their view on the issues concerning previous solutions regarding the Judicial Academy and presented their vision of a solution, which is already implemented in the Guidelines of the Working Group of the Ministry of Justice.