Access to justice in enforcement proceedings – building a model through consumer protection lens

Since December 2018 until November 2019, European Policy Centre (CEP) implemented the project “Access to justice in enforcement proceedings – building a model through consumer protection lens’’.

The overall goal of this project was to support judicial reform and increase judicial efficiency in Serbia through improving the accountability and transparency of public enforcement officers. CEP was the implementing party, while People’s Parliament from Leskovac was a project partner involved in the delivery of activities at the local level.

Although the functioning of public enforcement institute is relatively new in Serbia, and its benefits are yet to be evaluated, several issues have already been identified in their daily operation, especially in terms of their relations with citizens, i.e. parties in the enforcement procedures. Citizens are not adequately informed on the rights and obligations they have in the enforcement process, while the public enforcement officers sometimes act without transparency and disproportionately.

The results of the implementation of this project are:

• Identification of problems and obstacles to the effective involvement of consumer protection and other civil society organizations in monitoring the work of public enforcement officers.
• Developing and piloting a model for involvement of civil society organisations as an independent mechanism for monitoring the work of public enforcement officers.
• Rising awareness of the main stakeholders and the general public about the importance of civil society organisations involvement in monitoring the work of public enforcement officers.

Publications produced:

Study: Problems and obstacles in access to justice in enforcement procedure from the perspective of consumer protection

Policy brief: Problemi i prepreke za pristup pravdi u izvršnom postupku iz perspektive zaštite potrošača (in Serbian)

Vodič za zaštitu prava potrošača (in Serbian)

Infographic: Izvršni postupak i komunalne usluge (in Serbian)

Infographic: Položaj dužnika u izvršenju (in Serbian)

Infographic: Glavne specifičnosti izvršnog postupka u komunalnim predmetima (in Serbian)

The project was financially supported through the grant provided by USAID technical assistance project “Rule of Law” which promote the strategic advancement of Serbia’s judicial reform process, increase judicial efficiency, promote access to justice through non-judicial services (public enforcement officers), and build capacity of institutions in the judiciary outside of the court system.

Contact person: Dušan Protić, Programme Manager for Internal Market and Competetiveness (dusan.protic@cep.org.rs)