According to Appellate Court judge Miodrag Majic, instead of reducing the influence of politics on the judiciary, a new set of amendments to the Constitution will produce the opposite effect.

„Unfortunately, I’m sorry to be the harbinger of bad news, but I am completely convinced that this fundamentally brings us nothing new, that this is another missed opportunity to reform the judiciary,“ Majic told N1.

According to experts, as well as the EU, it is necessary to exclude the National Assembly from the process of electing judges and prosecutors, in order to reduce the influence of politics.

Majic is convinced that the new laws will do the opposite.

“Previously, we had a clear political presence in the judicial body of two political representatives – the Minister of Justice and the President of the Parliamentary Committee for Justice, and that was an undisguised, clear political influence. That was one of the reasons why the reform had to be started because Europe said that you cannot have political representatives who elect judges with such a democratic tradition. And our politicians said – ‘ok, we will give you what you ask for’, but they were not willing to give up political influence, they were willing to hide and leave out those visible channels of political influence, but they quickly rushed to devise how to make less visible they leave the channels of political influence inside,“ said Majic.

He pointed out that those channels will be four „prominent legal experts“ who are re-elected by the Assembly. „Instead of the two now visible exponents of politics, it will become four exponents of politics who are just a little less visible,“ emphasized Majic.

„I am absolutely convinced that this reform, instead of reducing the influence of politics, will produce even greater influence,” he stressed.