The Department for International Cooperation and Legal Assistance of the General Public prosecution coordinates the actions at the requests for providing international legal assistance, monitors the changing trends in the local legal systems, European legal practice and secures that the procedures comply with the European standards, ensures the implementation of fast and efficient direct informal legal assistance and the exchange of information through prosecutorial contact points, intensively cooperates with the representatives of international organizations and foreign institutions and participates in the work of international prosecutors’ networks and bodies. 

The Department for International Cooperation and Legal Assistance coordinates the process of providing international legal assistance in criminal matters both of the competent public prosecution offices which are acting at the request submitted formally through the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Serbia and through direct cooperation with the representatives of foreign prosecution offices with regard to the exchange of information relevant to the criminal proceedings, both domestically and internationally, in accordance with the principles of the Second Additional Protocol accompanying the European Convention of Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, bilateral and multilateral Memorandums of Cooperation and appropriate norms in the national legislative framework. The list of all public prosecution offices in the Republic of Serbia that provide international legal assistance can be found here. 

The General Public Prosecution takes part in the work of international prosecutors’ networks and bodies, such as Eurojust, EJN, the EU Network of Prosecutors General, the Consultative Council of European Prosecutors (CCPE) of the Council of Europe, the Bureau of T/-CY Committee of the Budapest Convention of the Council of Europe for Cybercrime, SEEPAG (the Southeast European prosecutors Advisory Group), etc. 

It is particularly important to highlight that in March 2020, the General Public Prosecution opened the Liaison Prosecutor’s Office in Eurojust (EU Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation), in the Hague, the Netherlands, after the Republic of Serbia signed and ratified the Cooperation Agreement with Eurojust in 2019, which intensified cooperation with this important EU network even more. In terms of the number of cases with Eurojust, the Republic of Serbia continues to be at the top of the non-EU countries with greatest level of cooperation with Eurojust. 

Likewise, the contact point of the General Public Prosecution actively participates in the work of the European Judicial Network (EJN), together with the contact points for the EJN form EU member states and candidate countries. Along with Eurojust, EJN is one of the most important judicial networks in Europe, which facilitates and speeds up the process of seeking and providing international legal assistance in criminal matter through the cooperation of contact points and tools such as the Judicial Atlas, model forms, information on national legal systems, information on the manner of conducting certain investigative and evidentiary actions and various forms of international legal assistance in member states (Fiches Belges) and other.

In order to strengthen international cooperation and legal assistance, the Department for International Cooperation and Legal Assistance proposes, drafts and organizes the signing of Memorandums of Understanding and Cooperation, which ensure direct contact, direct communication, information exchange and more efficient cooperation and handling of cross-border crime cases. Therefore, the Public Prosecution of the Republic of Serbia has 29 signed prosecutorial memoranda on cooperation.  

The Department for International Cooperation and Legal Assistance of the General Public Prosecution carries out intensive bilateral cooperation, organizing working visits of foreign prosecutors’ offices and representatives of foreign judicial institutions to the General Public Prosecution, as well as working visits of the General Public Prosecution to foreign partners. Also, close international bilateral cooperation is achieved with judicial and police liaison officers of foreign countries in the Republic of Serbia. 

The Department for International Cooperation and Legal Assistance cooperates intensively with the European Union institutions in the process of joining the European union. Together with other competent authorities of the Republic of Serbia, the General Public Prosecution actively participates in the implementation of measures from the Action Plan for Chapter 7 "Intellectual Property”, Action Plan for Chapter 23 "Judiciary and Fundamental Rights” and the Action Plan for Chapter 24 "Justice, Freedom and Security”, in close cooperation with the institutions of the European Union – the Delegation of the European Union in the Republic of Serbia and the European Commission. Also, representatives of the Department for International Cooperation and Legal Assistance actively participate in meetings with representatives of the European Union in the EU accession process, as well as in the preparation of reports for the aforementioned meetings and attachments to the Annual Report of the European Commission on the progress of the Republic of Serbia. 

Likewise, the Department for International Cooperation and Legal Assistance of the General Public Prosecution participates in the programming and implementation of EU projects related to the public prosecution, including the IPA 2015 project "Procurement of IT equipment and case management software in public prosecutor’s offices”, IPA 2017 project "Support to the prosecutorial system in Serbia”, Flexible support mechanism for Chapter 24 and Flexible support mechanism for Chapter 23. 

The Department for International Cooperation and Legal Assistance of the General Public Prosecution cooperates with international organizations and foreign judicial bodies in  professional development projects for the public prosecution, participating and/or organizing the participation of representatives of the public prosecution in numerous seminars, workshops, international conferences and study visits on the topics of organized crime, economic crime, corruption, money laundering, cybercrime, domestic violence, human, narcotics and weapons trafficking, international legal cooperation, etc. In this sense, the Department for International Cooperation and Legal Assistance of the General Public Prosecution, in cooperation with the Judicial Academy, coordinates the implementation of activities in projects of professional development and training of public prosecutors with the OSCE Mission, the Council of Europe, the US Department of Justice (OPDAT and ICITAP program), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and CEPOL (EU Agency for Law Enforcement Training), as well as with other international partners within the scope of the aforementioned EU projects. 

The General Public Prosecution cooperates with the German Association for International Development Cooperation (GIZ) and the Dutch Center for International Legal Cooperation (CILC), which implement regional EU projects, such as the realized IPA 2017 and IPA 2019 projects "Countering serious crime in the Western Balkans”, during which an EU prosecutor was sent to the General Public Prosecution and through this project the General Public Prosecution of the Republic of Serbia received support for operational international cooperation and international legal assistance. The implementation of the regional project "EU support for Countering Migrant Smuggling and Human Trafficking in the Western Balkans”.

The public prosecutors of the General Public Prosecution assigned to the Department for International Cooperation and Legal Assistance are: Branko Stamenković – Head of Department and Gordana Janićijević – Liaison Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia in Eurojust.