The Administrative Court confirmed - the Government should not ignore the request for access to information

The Administrative Court adopted the lawsuit of the organization Transparency Serbia and ordered the Government of the Republic of Serbia to act within 15 days on a request for claiming the information of public importance in connection with the concession for  the airport "Nikola Tesla". It is clear from the verdict (https://goo.gl/94NwJx) that the General Secretariat of the Government confirmed the receipt of the request from the TS, as well as the urgency, but that even after receiving the complaint, it did not act.

From this it is obvious that this is not a random omission, but a clear intention to deny the right to access information, which has led to the additional engagement of the Administrative Court. We remind that with the request for access to information the so- "Silence of the administration" is not allowed at all, but subjects to a misdemeanor liability. Transparency Serbia has been, since this February, trying to get a copy of the concession act and the Feasibility Study for the airport "Nikola Tesla", that is to say, parts of these acts, based on which it could be concluded that the selected model of concession for Serbia is more favorable than the alternative solutions ( e.g. investments of The Airport’s own capital, or funds from credit in capacity expansion, some other form of public-private partnership or privatization).

We remind that, at the same request, we received this answer from the Ministry of Transport (https://goo.gl/ZFV2dK) "that the publication of these two documents would undermine the vital interests of the Republic of Serbia." We established the accuracy of such a claim, pointing out that it might have been justified in part, but not the secrecy of the entire documents. The Commissioner ordered the submission of documents, and a new reply from the Ministry (https://goo.gl/832QtG) was received - that they do not have a concession act or a study at all ! The Administrative Court ordered the General Secretariat of the Government of Serbia to act on a request for access to information of public importance from the 14^th of February 2017, "without delay, and no later than 15 days from the date of receipt of the judgment". Within that period, pursuant to the Law, the Government may provide copies of the requested documents, or to issue a decision rejecting the request in whole or in part for any of the reasons that the Law on Free Access to Information recognizes.

One of the proclaimed goals of the Action Plan adopted by the Government in the framework of The European integration of Serbia is to improve the rules of free access to information and their implementation in practice (it is the activity of 2.2.5 from the Action Plan for Chapter 23 EU Integration of Serbia, adopted by the Government of the Republic Serbia in April 2016). This example shows, however, that there is not enough will for the Government to fulfill the existing legal obligations. Transparency Serbia has, for two years-since the first mention of a possible public-private partnership for further development of the airport, indicated that the Law on Public-Private Partnership and Concessions stipulates that, prior to entering such an arrangement, it is necessary to conduct a study to show that the concession is the best way to achieving the desired goal. In the concrete case, it is even more important for citizens to get convincing information about the reasons for the concession, due to the fact that the officials have repeatedly said that the Belgrade airport is doing great business and generating great incomes for years, and then The Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic stated that "we are able to invest in the airport".