The article headlined "Ministers, MPs, Directors, Advisers, Judges all broke the law" ( 4 April 2013), published in the Danas daily, suggests that Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivan Mrkic violated the law by failing to notify the Anti-Corruption Agency of the property owned by the appointed Assistant Ministers.

MFA has always made every effort to comply with all its legal obligations, as also evidenced by the fact that nearly 80 Ambassadors, Consuls General and other MFA officials subject to this obligation have carried it out duly and on time, as well as the Ministry itself. To Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic's knowledge, declarations of assets have been submitted for all the Assistant Ministers appointed by the Government at his proposal - Miomir Udovicki, Ljubica Vasic, Goran Aleksic and Sani Dermaku. A certain delay occurred early in 2013 due to lack of clarity and the need to interpret once again Serbian (not entirely harmonized) regulations which are not very clear when it comes to defining whether Assistant Foreign Ministers have the status of an official or not (they are not regarded as such under the Law on Foreign Affairs, while by some other regulations they are considered appointed officials, etc.).

At the Agency's request, the National Assembly adopted, on 16 December 2013, an authentic interpretation of Article 2 of the Law on Anti-Corruption Agency defining the notion of an official.

As soon as this was clarified, the requested declarations were filed for all the persons concerned, with a few months' delay. The delay brought about no harmful consequences whatsoever.

The context of the article, its presentation and layout may, among other things, mislead the reader to draw a hasty conclusion that Minister Mrkic is lax in obeying the law, even that the Minister had some gain from not abiding by the law. This is simply untrue, and the author of the text could have explained it. After all, one expects that a serious and reputed daily such as "Danas" does not fall so easily for sensationalist "news", but to report responsibly and accurately, maintaining its traditional standards.

Incidentally, the Minister wishes to emphasize that his RSD remuneration is equivalent to EUR 750, whereas, to our knowledge, remuneration of the Head of the Anti-Corruption Agency equals at least twice that amount, which should also be made known to the public and not just what the Agency selectively chooses to publish, thereby tarnishing the reputation of both the Ministry and the Minister.