How security authorities need to protect the personal data they handle, why they need special rules, and why European regulations in this area are important for Serbia, BCSP researcher Jelena Pejic asked Juraj Sajfert, a lawyer and European expert in the area of personal data protection.

{image1} Numerous incidents, starting from the Savamala case in Serbia, followed by the beating of protesters in Montenegro, together with the mass wiretapping scandal in Macedonia, signified the regression of the rule of law in the Balkans, is one of the conclusions of the second panel of the conference “Security challenges as a link between the citizens and institutions”, which was organized by Belgrade Center for Security Policy (BCSP) ...

Before the special Law on Private Security was adopted in November 2013, the private security industry had been operating in a legal vacuum for 20 years. The analysis of the implementation of this Law was conducted by the BCSP Executive Director Predrag Petrovic.

BCSP Conference on the Oversight of Implementation of Special Investigative Measures was held with more than 60 participants, including representatives from the ruling political parties as well as opposition, security institutions, the media and experts.

Special measures for covert data collection infringe upon fundamental rights and therefore it is vital that they are implemented only under the circumstances defined by law. To this end, it is necessary to establish a comprehensive external oversight of implementation of special measures is. BCSP’s research team has now compiled a handbook to support that process.

This analysis offers insight into the implementation of special measures for covert data collection, especially special evidentiary actions, which are used throughout the process of discovering and proving special criminal actions.

The report is structured to present findings relevant to the policy areas covered in the European Commission’s Progress Report for Serbia for 2014, as well as to highlight additional important issues. This report contains a separate chapter related to the process of producing Action Plan for the chapter 23 and also a special segment devoted to the problems that emerged after the floods that hit Serbia in May, including inappropriate responses by the state institutions and the corruption risks that appeared in the aftermath of these events.

BCSP researchers Katarina Djokic and Vladimir Erceg analyze the role of the Parliament in the oversight of those aspects of the security institutions’ work where the corruption risks are particularly prominent: budgeting and management of finance, public procurements, material resources management, human resources management, application of special procedures and measures for secret intelligence gathering.