GOVEREMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA NEGOTIATION GROUP FOR CHAPTER 24 – JUSTICE, FREEDOM AND SECURITY REVISED ACTION PLAN FOR CHAPTER 24 - JUSTICE, FREEDOM AND SECURITY Belgrade, 2020. REVISED ACTION PLAN FOR THE CHAPTER 24 - JUSTICE, FREEDOM AND SECURITY INTRODUCTION The Action Plan for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security and the Negotiation Position of the Republic of Serbia were adopted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, on April, 27, 2016, and 24 May 2016, respectively, after which, negotiations under this Chapter were officially opened at the Conference, held in Brussels, on July 18, 2016. With the opening of negotiations, the Ministry of the Interior received the so-called “interim benchmarks”, i.e. a list of activities which would be subject to detailed monitoring and influence the dynamics of European integration regarding this chapter. For the Republic of Serbia, there is a total of 91 interim benchmarks prepared, out of which 41 interim benchmarks were for Chapter 24 – Justice, Freedom and Security. The process of reporting, monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the Action Plan for Chapter 24 is regulated by the Government Decision, which was adopted on December 29, 2016. The first level of reporting refers to the realisation of individual activities, the second level refers to the realisation of activities under individual subchapters, and the third level of reporting refers to the overall realisation of activities under the Action Plan for this chapter, where the Negotiating Group reports to the Government of the Republic of Serbia, i.e. the Coordination Body for the Process of Accession of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union, i.e. the Minister in charge of European integration, Negotiating TeamforAccessionof theRepublicofSerbiato the European Union and the Ministry of European Integration. On the other side, this Decision is defining subjects responsible for reporting process, divided into three groups, with a special group for the area of financial management. The first group is responsible for the realisation of individual activities. The second group consists of coordinators of subchapters, while the third group consists of representatives of the Negotiating Group. For the purpose of reporting, administrative-technical and professional tasks are performed by the Ministry of the Interior, the Sector for International Cooperation, European Affairs and Planning - Department for European Affairs. The Negotiating Group for Chapter 24 delivers semi-annual reports to the European Commission, together with track records tables, through the Head of the Negotiating Team, every January and July. Before being delivered to the European Commission, reports are delivered to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, competent ministers within the Coordination Body for the Process of Accession of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union, tasked with the implementation of the activities from the Action Plan, Minister for European Integration and the Negotiating Team. Once a year, in cooperation with the Head of the Negotiating Team, the Negotiating Group reports to the National Assembly, i.e. the competent subcommittees, while, twice a year, the Negotiating Group organises plenary meetings with non-governmental organisations gathered around the National Convention on the European Union, as well as thematic meetings devoted to the policies contained in this chapter. In addition, the Negotiating Group reports to representative unions acting within the Ministry of the Interior on the status of implementation of activities under the Action Plan for Chapter 24. The Ministry of the Interior regularly publishes reports on the implementation of the Action Plan, on the website of the Ministry of the Interior - www.mup.gov.rs. REPORTS ON THE IMPLEMENTACION OF THE ACTION PLAN FOR CHAPTER 24 – JUSTICE, FREEDOM AND SECURITY As mentioned, the Negotiating Group for Chapter 24 delivers semi-annual reports to the European Commission, together with track records tables. The first report On January 30, 2017, the Negotiating Group for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security submitted the first report on the implementation of the Action Plan for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security for the period July-December 2016. During the reporting period, 37.70% of the activities were implemented, 44.80% were partially implemented, and 17.50% were not implemented. The second report On July 31, 2017, the Negotiating Group for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security submitted the second report on the implementation of the Action Plan for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security for the period January - June 2017. During the reporting period, 46.35% of the activities were implemented, 29.47% were partially implemented, and 24.17% were not implemented. The third report On February 01, 2018, the Negotiating Group for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security submitted the third report on the implementation of the Action Plan for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security for the period July - December 2017. During the reporting period, 51.43% of the activities were implemented, 29.21% were partially implemented, and 19.36% were not implemented. The fourth report On July 26, 2018, the Negotiating Group for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security submitted the fourth report on the implementation of the Action Plan for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security for the period January - June 2018. During the reporting period, 55.56% of the activities were implemented, 29.84% were partially implemented, and 14.60% were not implemented. The fifth report On February 02, 2019, the Negotiating Group for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security submitted the fifth report on the implementation of the Action Plan for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security for the period January -Jun 2019. During the reporting period, 61.1 % of the activities were implemented, 26.9% were partially implemented, and 11.9% were not implemented. The Sixth Report On August 12, 2019, the Negotiating Group for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security submitted the sixth report on the implementation of the Action Plan for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security for the period January -Jun 2019. During the reporting period, 62,5 % of the activities were completed, 25,6% were partially completed, and 11,9% were not completed. The Seventh Report On February 17, 2020, the Negotiating Group for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security submitted the seventh report on the implementation of the Action Plan for Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security for the period July-December 2019. During the reporting period, 66,05 % of the activities were completed,21.18% were partially completed, and 12,77% were not completed. METHODOLOGY OF THE REVISED ACTION PLAN The revision of the Action Plan was designed with the aim of bridging the period until the closing benchmarks for this Chapter when this document will be revised again since the closing benchmarks will contain new requirements. Another reason for the revision of the Action Plan is that it was not in line with the Common Negotiation Position of the Republic of Serbia and the European Union and was drafted on the basis of the recommendations of the Screening Report, which was submitted a year before its drafting started, while interim benchmarks were submitted within the Common Negotiation Position of the Republic of Serbia and the European Union in July 2016. After a video conference with the representatives of the European Commission and the meetings held in Brussels, Belgium, on December 20, 2017, as well as the comments of the European Commission on the first Draft, the following steps were taken in terms of revising a document: ¾ Recommendations as the basis for defining the activities have been deleted from the document, and corresponding interim benchmarks have been listed instead along with relevant activities belonging to the specific interim benchmark. Each subchapter begins with an introduction and a description of what has been done ¾ Column the, Source of Verification, has been deleted from the Action Plan ¾ Completed activities have been explained in detail in the Introduction of the Action Plan, for each subchapter separately and deleted from the document ¾ Partially implemented activities and a part of implemented activities have been mentioned and explained in subchapter introduction, while a part of non- implemented activities has been redefined, in terms of deadlines and sources of financing ¾ Continuous activities, i.e. activities for which the deadline for the implementation is stated as “continuous” are retained in the Action Plan in a form previously defined. ¾ Activities in progress, with a modified deadline, are retained in the Action plan ¾ For certain activities, where necessary, responsible authorities and/or indicators of the result have been changed ¾ Sources of financing have been defined for each activity separately ¾ Deadlines have been defined for each activity separately. Deadlines chronologically follow the timeframe for the implementation of activities, for the period from 2019 until 2021, defined by quarters. It is planned that the main activities related to harmonisation with the acquis communautaire are implemented by the end of 2021. That is, it is foreseen that the main part of the work will be completed by December 31, 2022 ¾ Some activities will be implemented continuously from the beginning until the end of the implementation of the