First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic said that a successful fight against corruption requires cooperation among competent authorities from the whole region.

Dacic stated at a roundtable discussion titled "Modern Fight against Corruption in the Western Balkans" that Serbia is ready to minimise corruption, adding that the first step in developing the system to combat corruption is recognition that it exists.

The First Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that Serbia has already taken the most important step in the fight against corruption.

Minister of Justice Snezana Malovic confirmed that the fight against corruption has been one of the priorities of the Justice Ministry and the Serbian government, adding that the goal is to reduce corruption in our country to a minimum.

The state is determined to fight corruption and no one will be protected in that fight, she emphasised.

We need to change citizens’ awareness and establish a new system of values, Malovic underlined.

Adequate punishment of all forms of corruption will contribute to combating negative social phenomena, she noted.

She voiced her belief that by implementing laws consistently, the state will manage to efficiently prosecute all perpetrators of criminal acts and cut off financial routes of organised criminal groups.

This refers to all those who obtained economic power through illegal means, regardless of their social status, and are now using it to bribe state officials, the media or to control financial institutions.

Malovic proclaimed that with new laws and judicial reform, the state is demonstrating that no one is protected by the office they hold. This is also affirmed by the provision which reads that state officials accused of corruption are under the jurisdiction of the prosecutor for organised crime, she added.

The Minister highlighted that the whole of society should establish a new system of values and must become aware of the fact that corruption is an unacceptable mode of behaviour.

Serbian President Boris Tadic underscored that when it comes to societies in transition in the Western Balkans, building institutions is a precondition for a successful clampdown on corruption and organised crime, adding that continued EU accession of the region is also of great consequence in this respect.

Tadic declared that corruption impedes progress and, being a form of social malignancy, it causes institutions to collapse, stressing that Serbia remains committed to the fight against corruption and organised crime.

The roundtable discussion, in which public and state prosecutors from Western Balkan countries are taking part, along with representatives from the OSCE, the UNDOC office in Serbia and the Serbian and French justice ministries, was organised by the Serbian Public Prosecution, with the support from the Council of Europe.