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The Law on Parliamentary Inquiry Should Be Adopted Urgently

Institute Alternative appeals on MPs of Parliament of Montenegro to amend the Law on Parliamentary Inquiry as soon as possible. Refusing to support these amendments means refusal of the support to the strenghtening of the Parliament’s control function, because it is certain that the recently former inquiry committee cannot perform the task asigned to it unless its comepetences are more closely defined by the law. Inquiry comittee for collecting facts and information about the corruption in the privatization of Telekom of Montenegro will face obstacles in collecting information because of the imprecisely defined competences, the lack of access to classified information and the absence of legal provision which would oblige state officials to be interrogated in front of the Committee and sanction them in the case of disobedience to the calls for interrogation or in the case of giving a false testimony.

The aforementioned issues should be regulated by the law as soon as possible so the current parliamentary inquiry will give results, and the inquiry committee could proceed with its work smoothly. The changes of the Law on classified information are also needed so that the members of the inquiry committee will be granted the access to classified information.

It is worrying that the inquiry committee has so far held only one, constitutive session, on March 9, especially when bearing in mind that it received a difficult mandate to perform its task by October 1. Given that this is the first parliamentary inquiry in the last ten years, members of the inquiry committee should demonstrate additional responsibility and give contribution to the parliamentary inquiry becoming a powerful oversight instrument over the work of Government, state bodies institutions, and a control mechanism to be employed more often.

As we have already highlighted in our analysis “Parliamentary inquiry in Montenegro – Control mechanism without political support”, the special Law on parliamentary inquiry is needed to regulate in more details the scope of competences of the inquiry committee, its formation, organization and functioning, budget, conducting of inquiry, reporting to the Parliament. Consequently, this control mechanism would be strengthened.

Dina Bajramspahić

Public Policy Reseracher

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Seminar: Rule of Law in Montenegro

Institute Alternative President of Managing Board Mr Stevo Muk participated on 24 May in the lunch Seminar on recent developments in the area of Rule of Law in Montenegro, organized by Netherlands permanent representations to the EU in Brussels. Mr Muk participated in discussion on the current state of play in the areas of Rule of Law, Fight Against Corruption, Media Freedom and Anti-Discrimination policies. Debate was particularly topical in light of the publication by the European Commission of its assessment of progress in Montenegro.

Invited were delegates from the 27 EU member states participating in the working groups COWEB (Western Balkans) & COELA (Enlargement) of the Council of the European Union, as well as the EC and EEAS.

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Problems with concessions

A year after the amendments to the Law on concessions entered the parliamentary procedure, Montenegro still doesn’t have a completed and adequate legal framework in the field of public-private partnerships and concessions. The team in charge of making the amendment proposals was formed by the decision of Commission for Economic Policies and Financial System of Government of Montenegro in June 2011 and it was tasked with the submitting a proposal of the amendments to the Law on Concessions to the Government by the end of July 2011. However, the work at the changes of law has been stalled with the explanation that it was more meaningful to introduce a single legal framework for both public-private partnerships and concessions.

The Government’s announcements that Montenegro was entering the “phase of public-private partnerships”, as well as the numerous deficiencies of the Law on concessions from 2009 (lack of synchronization of provisions about competitive dialogue, procedures, certain definitions etc with the EU directives) and of the Law on private sector participation in conducting public services from 2002 should accelerate the adoption of new legal provisions. The same conclusion can be drawn based on the large number of cancelled concession contracts which, according to the work of Commission on concessions, increased even more during the first quarter of 2012.

Nevertheless, the described dynamics of the law adoption in the field of public private partnership and concessions demonstrates that it is not at the top of Government’s priorities.

It is necessary to point to the difficulties in implementing the current provisions of the Law on concessions. According to the Law, Commission on Concessions is obliged to make and regularly update the register of concession contracts at its Internet presentation. With the two years delay in completing this register, Montenegrin public is not in a position to have an insight into the list of concession contracts since the Commission’s website is out of order.

New legal provisions should extend the content of the Register on concession contracts and public private partnerships to include also the debt and repayment plans. The public should have in insight into the contracts based on which a certain concession was granted or the public private partnership formed, including the financial reports about the realization of concessions and public private partnerships. In that way, the transparency of the entire process and the quality of contracts would increase.

Jovana Marović
Research coordinator

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Montenegro and Negotiations on Chapter 24 – Justice, freedom and security

Negotiating chapter 24 covers a broad spectrum of areas regarding, inter alia, asylum and migration policies, fight against organised crime, control of external borders, as well as judicial, police and customs cooperation.

This chapter regulates the area of justice, freedom and security by efficiently interconnecting the judicial, prosecutorial, police and other relevant bodies of the member states with a view to protecting the external borders while simultaneously guaranteeing security to the citizens within the EU.

Some of the key questions addressed under this chapter concern the application of the European arrest warrant, as well as the principle of mutual recognition of court decisions in member states. The acquis in this area stipulates the establishment of direct communication between the judicial bodies inside the EU, as well as the possibility of carrying out investigations by joint teams cooperating in the fight against organised crime. It is precisely due to the strategic role of this chapter in the EU legal framework that Montenegro is urged to fulfill the key priorities related to the fight against corruption and organised crime.

Based on the dynamics, time-frame and the problems Croatia encountered during the negotiation process on Chapter 24, the goal of this analysis is to identify the potential obstacles in Montenegro’s negotiations, as well as to provide recommendations to overcome them.

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Meeting With Philip Reeker, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State

President of the Managing Board of Institute Alternative, Stevo Muk, executive director of Centre for Civic Education, Daliborka Uljarevic, and executive director of Centre for Development of Non-Governmental Organisations, Ana Novakovic, met today in Podgorica with the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Philip Reeker.

Political and socio-economic situation, the role of civil society in pursuing social reforms, cooperation between the Government and civil society organizations, Montenegro’s European and NATO integrations, were among the topics discussed at the meeting. Mr. Reeker showed interest for the cooperation of civil society with the Government, as well as for the issues relevant for the further democratic development of the country.

Representatives of the non-governmental sector pointed to the significance of social and economic problems in Montenegro and to the lack of efficient implementation of the laws and other acts, which are supposed to ensure the rule of law. All the participants agreed that the role of Montenegrin civil society was still very significant. Mr. Reeker, by highlighting support for the further progress in Montenegro’s European and NATO integration, emphasised the readiness of the U.S. to continue with the support to the non-governmental organisations in the country.

The meeting was also attended by the U.S. ambassador in Montenegro, Sue K. Brown, and by the chief of the U.S. embassy’s political-economic section, John Konney.