Lawyers "ask for help from EU institutions"

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Lawyers "ask for help from EU institutions"

BELGRADE -- President of the Bar Association of Serbia (AKS) Dragoljub Đorđević said Thursday that lawyers' strike would continue.

He added that the AKS had asked for help from European institutions, but voiced hope that lawyers would have enough energy to resume negotiations with the Serbian government.

"When the expert eight thousand people, lawyers, say that a law and a set of by-laws is wrong, then it certainly is so," Đorđević told reporters in front of the Serbian government building, where lawyers staged a one-hour protest today.

He said that the level of ignoring the legal profession, the work of which has been blocked for 77 days now, was astonishing, but he still hoped that lawyers and the Serbian government would find a common ground and a way out of the situation within the system of the country's institutions.

Đorđević said that he would travel to Brussels today, where he would hold talks with senior representatives of the Association of European Lawyers, one of the main legal adviser to the Council of Europe, the European Commission and the European Parliament.

The AKS president stated that the Bar Association had submitted a report on the legal profession and the rule of law situation in Serbia to the European Commission, and had sent a report to the European Commissioner for Justice. It also submitted a report to the Venice Commission, expecting not to receive an answer from that body before April.

"From no point of view can we look at this situation as the legal profession acting against the citizens of Serbia and against our country. We believe that by acting in this way, we will only speed up the activities that should lead...

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