Čarapić requested that his amendment be corrected, proposed that each party in the disputes bear its own costs

Although it was not on the agenda, MPs at a session of the Parliamentary Committee on the Political System, Judiciary and Administration discussed amendments to the Draft Law on Free Access to Information (FOI), which had provoked reactions from the civil sector in recent days.

The president of the parliamentary group Poketa Europe Now (PES) Vasilije Čarapić requested that his previously proposed amendment, which stipulated that the prosecutor in an administrative dispute under the SPI bear all costs of the procedure, be corrected.

Čarapić said that such a solution should be changed and proposed that each party in these disputes bear its own costs, in order to prevent abuses, but preserve the right to judicial protection.

He assessed that the law on free access to information is being massively abused in practice, which, as he stated, costs the state millions of euros in court costs, while the public interest often remains unfulfilled.

The proposal was supported by Darko Dragović (PES), who assessed that this would prevent abuses without harming the plaintiffs, while New Serbian Democracy MP Dejan Đurović proposed that the money from these proceedings be directed to charitable purposes.

Other amendments were also considered at the session, some of which were rejected, while one of the amendments by Democratic MP Duško Stjepović was unanimously adopted, thus removing the possibility of extending the deadline for deciding on access to information requests.