The New Criminal Code Has Gone to Brussels, and Citizens Still Don't Know Whether Officials Will Again Face Tougher Penalties

The Ministry of Justice announced that the draft of the new Criminal Code and the draft of the new Law on Criminal Procedure have been sent to the European Commission for an opinion. According to the ministry, this is the first completely new Criminal Code in three decades. A big announcement. Just one detail is missing: nobody outside the working groups and Brussels knows yet what it says.

Seven years in the making

Work began in 2019, when an expert group was set up to analyse the existing framework. From 2020 to 2026 a working group led by academician Vlado Kambovski held consultations with the courts, prosecutors' offices, the bar, academia and civil society. The proposal was published on ENER, the national e-consultation portal, back in July 2022, more than 50 opinions were considered, and 33 EU directives have been built into the text.

In parallel, a 25-member working group led by Prof. Dr. Gordana Lažetić completed the new Law on Criminal Procedure in October 2026, aligned with 25 European directives. Changes have been announced on confiscation, financial investigations, electronic evidence, special investigative measures, victim protection and remote hearings. The current law was passed in November 2010 and has applied since 1 January 2013.

The question the ministry skipped

The entire statement doesn't say a word about what interests citizens most: are the high penalties for officials coming back? In September 2023 Parliament reduced the penalties for some forms of abuse of office and for criminal association, and also deleted the specific provision on abuse in public procurement. The lower penalties also shortened the statute of limitations. We know what that means in practice: cases that simply expire.

In January 2026 Parliament reintroduced a public procurement provision in Article 353, with prison terms of one to eight years, or four to ten where there is large-scale gain or damage. But in its report of 4 November the European Commission found that those amendments left legal uncertainty, that the provision is too narrow for serious tender rigging, and that high-level corruption cases continue to drag on and expire.

Professor Aleksandra Deanoska Trendafilova, a member of the working group, announced at an expert debate in late October a separate criminal offence for abuse in public procurement, which would also cover concessions and public-private partnerships. Good. But an announcement at a debate is not a text.

The ministry says the draft will be published on ENER. Until then, the law that is supposed to decide how much a minister answers for abusing their office is read first by European officials, and only afterwards by the citizens who pay that minister's salary. Why wasn't the text published the moment it went to Brussels?