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Rule of law in the Western Balkans: Necessary steps ahead

Establishing the rule of law remains a key challenge in the Western Balkans and represents one of the greatest obstacles in the EU accession process of the six countries of the region (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Serbia).

Rule of law: stagnating or backsliding

While the EU’s membership conditions in this area have become stringer than in any previous enlargement round, and despite the EU’s employment of a more sophisticated monitoring mechanism, the actual performance of these countries on rule of law matters is rather modest. In fact, the countries are either stagnating or backsliding, a trend that has not only been confirmed by the reports from the European Commission, but also other independent indices like the Freedom House index.

This event will discuss the key challenges faced by countries in the Western Balkans in the area of rule of law and experiences in implementing relevant reforms especially in areas such as the fight against corruption and organised crime, the judiciary and freedom of speech.

It brings together experts from the Think for Europe Network – Institute Alternative (Podgorica, Montenegro) and European Policy Centre (Belgrade, Serbia), the Clingendael Institute (The Hague, Netherlands) and their networks, diplomats, politicians, policy and decision-makers rule of law in the western balkans: necessary steps ahead, and other practitioners. It is a public event, aimed at facilitating and encouraging public discussion.

Programme (17 OCT 2019 13:00 – 16:45)

13:00 – Registration and coffee (Hall)

13:30 – Developments in the Rule of Law in the Western Balkans

  • Anne Mulder (Member of Parliament and rapporteur Western Balkans for the Parliament)
  • Dina Bajramspahic (Research Director, Institute Alternative, Montenegro)
  • Wouter Zweers (Research Fellow, Clingendael Institute)

15:00 – Coffee Break

15:30 – Free Media and the Freedom of Expression

  • Dragana Bajic (Researcher, European Policy Centre, Serbia)
  • Janneke Fokkema (Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs) 

16:45 – Informal reception            

The event will be moderated by Louise van Schaik (Head Europe in the World, Clingendael Institute)

The Clingendael Institute and the Think for Europe Network (TEN) are jointly organising this event.

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Local authorities should not ignore citizens’ requests

The Coalition for Transparency and Fight against Corruption at the Local Level (KUM) supports the efforts of non-governmental activists and citizens of Ulcinj to protect the Pine forest area and urges the Ulcinj local authorities to respect the voice of its citizens, but also to act responsibly towards the resources of this municipality.

We recall that the citizens of Ulcinj did not have timely information on plans and attempts to repurpose the area of ​​the Pine forest by the municipality of Ulcinj. Spatial-urban development plans (SUDP) of Ulcinj, through non-transparent process, intended this area for tourism and drafted Detailed urban development plan (DUDP), but it received negative opinion from the Audit Committee (12/06/2019). Consequently, it was not adopted by the local parliament within the legal deadline. Also, during almost nine years of working on the SUDP and two public debates, the Pine Forest was not mentioned, but other areas such as Velika plaza, Salina, Ada Bojana, Valdanos, Sas and Liman/Maslinjak were in focus. Although the valorisation of the Pine Forest was envisaged, it was not clear to what extent it would develop, except the part related to the construction of the new Hotel Galeb (on the site of the old hotel), which was supported by the citizens because that hotel used to represent one of the symbols of tourism.

In April this year, one person from the region was building a “restaurant” in the only widening of the Pine forest, and another one even entered with a dredge as he claimed to “clean his property”. The response of the citizens of Ulcinj to this was organization of the protest with request for the municipal authorities to put permanent moratorium on the entire area of the Pine Forest. Protests were held on 7 and 23 May 2019, next to the Ulcinj Municipality building, and citizens on that occasion submitted a request to initiate the formal protection of the Pine Forest. Unfortunately, the municipal authorities did not even respond to their own citizens. Dissatisfaction of citizens, as well as non-governmental organizations, has become actualized after publication of the information that the Government of Montenegro has made the Decision on drawing up DUDP of “Pinjes – Pine Forest”, as well as the Decision on drawing up the DUDP of “High class hotels and villas “, also on Pinjes. It was a sign that the municipality of Ulcinj, contrary to the expressed attitude of citizens and the public interest, requested the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism re-drafting of the Pine forest DUDP. The citizens of Ulcinj continued to express their dissatisfaction through social media, which was intensified upon the release of information that an agreement on ceding the land (8000m2) had been reached between the Government and the Municipality of Ulcinj for unblocking of municipal account. Then the new protest was initiated in front of the municipality and the request, signed by 300 citizens, was submitted through the municipal archive to protect the Pine forest. The municipality responded by publishing an unsigned press statement and attempt to discredit the prominent activist, Zenepa Lika. The attack was factually unfounded, which our colleague Lika proved, but it indicated that the civil protest had surprised and appears that, only for a while, scared the Ulcinj authorities. As a reminder, the municipality forbade citizens who protested to connect sound system in the municipal building, which these same citizens pay.

The Coalition KUM expresses concern over the fact that municipal authorities in Ulcinj persist in completing this process, despite clearly expressed citizens’ opposition, as indicated by today’s statement of the President of the Municipality, who announced upcoming payment of funds to the Municipality of Ulcinj by the Government, and for which the Municipality of Ulcinj will sacrifice even the Pine Forest – its only green area in the heart of the city and kind of “open treatment centre ” for the citizens of Ulcinj.

Local authorities should listen to the voice of their citizens and not grossly ignore citizens’ initiatives, especially not those that are aimed at protecting the resources of the municipality itself and which are in the public interest.

The Coalition for Transparency and Fight against Corruption at the Local Level (KUM) consists of 18 CSOs as follows: Centre for Civic Education (CCE), Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), UL-Info from Ulcinj, Institute Alternative (IA), Za Druga from Petrovac, Center for Development of Non-Governmental Organisations (CDNGO), Juventas, Bonum from Pljevlja, Active Zone from Cetinje, Democratic Centre of Bijelo Polje, Centre for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIJ MNE), Union of Doctors of Medicine of Montenegro, Centre for Security, Sociological and Criminological Research “Defendology” from Niksic, Monitoring Group Ulcinj – MogUL, Centre for Political Education from Niksic, NGO Da zazivi selo from Pljevlja, Monitor’s Centre for Democracy and Media (MCDM) and Association Dr Martin Schneider-Jacoby from Ulcinj NGO.

The Coalition was formed within the framework of the project “Let’s Put Corruption into Museum!” implemented by the CCE in cooperation with partners and with the support of the EU Delegation to Montenegro and the Ministry of Public Administration of the Government of Montenegro. The views expressed in this announcement are the sole responsibility of the Coalition KUM and do not necessarily reflect the views of the EU and the Ministry of Public Administration.

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Agency will not act against Bošković: Law does not apply when money comes from abroad

Agency rejected a IA’s request to initiate the procedure against the Minister of Defence Predrag Bošković, suspecting that he had an illegal income of at least 62 000 euro as an official of international handball organisations.

Agency rejected the request as unfounded, claiming that the Law on Prevention of Corruption does not apply to international bodies.

Because of this decision, IA announced it will file a lawsuit to the Administrative Court as well as and ask the Council of the Agency to get acquainted with the case and request that its director initiates the procedure in accordance with the Law.

IA points out that minister has been illegally making money over last three years as Vice President of the Executive Board of European Handball Federation (EHF) and member of the Executive Board of International Handball Federation (IHF).

Article 12 of the Law of Prevention of Corruption says that a public official shall not be a president or member of the management body or supervisory board, executive director, member of management of public companies, public institutions or other legal entities. On the basis of membership in the managing or supervisory bodies, public official cannot legally generate income or other compensation.

In the last regular annual asset declaration, Bošković reported receiving 25.000 euro as vice president of EHF, and just over 8.700 euro as a member of the IHF in the last year.

IA claims that the legal norm does not allow different interpretations and that the Law does not distinguish between domestic, foreign and international sports associations.

However, the decision signed by Agency’s Assistant Director Savo Milašinović states that was the reason for rejecting the Institute’s request.

Milašinović also explained that IHF is a non-profit association whose headquarters is in Basel and is therefore a subject to Swiss law.

IA’s Stevo Muk said its unclear how Agency made the conclusion that Article 12 does not apply to these organisations because the Law did not specify any exceptions that would apply to a foreign, international, non-profit organisation.

“If the Agency’s legal position was lawful and justified, it would be a lesson to public officials that through the establishment of non-profits with headquarters outside Montenegro, they could generate additional income, without the Agency opening any conflict of interest proceedings and without breaching the law ”, warned Muk.

He added that the case is clear, but the Agency’s decision is a continuation of its illegal practice of protecting public officials.

Agency rejected the case, although by the Law it could only do so if the initiative was incomplete, in which case it was legally obliged to call upon IA to amend, which the Agency did not do.

On the other hand, it is clear from the content of the ruling that the Agency has engaged in the assessment of the facts or the merits of the legal issue, Muk said.

“It’s obvious that Agency was directly acquainted with the internal acts of the EHF. Otherwise, why did it have to prepare official translation of its acts, determine by legal analysis the meaning of the relevant provisions as well as to become acquainted with the legislation of Switzerland (for example the Civil Law which it mentions in the decision. It is clear that the Agency engaged in an assessment of the facts of the case in question without having opened proceedings under the Law on Prevention of Corruption. Such conduct is not in accordance with the Law, and does not have a basis in Law on Administrative Procedure”, Muk said.

“When already engaged in the collection of data and facts relevant for decision-making, Agency had to formally open the procedure and invite Bošković to make his statement, which it “may have done, but there is no information about that in the decision”, Muk said.

Author: Miloš Rudović, Vijesti
Article originally published in daily newspaper Vijesti, as well on its web portal.

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Public Finance Management: The other side of the coin

(updated monitoring report)

PFM reform is one of the umbrella processes intended to transform our public administration, help effective spending which would maximise the value-for-money, but also indirectly aid in the fight against corruption, as the areas most susceptible to corruption tend to be the ones where public funding intersects with private interests. The key Government strategic document in this area is the 2016-2020 PFM Reform Programme.

During Programme implementation thus far, most progress has been achieved in relation to capacity building activities (mainly training) and regulatory changes.
The longest delays occurred in relation to the following: establishment of the e-registry of state property and delivery of relevant training; development of a detailed programme budgeting implementation and revision plan; improvements to the overview of projects included in the Capital Budget, and establishment of the e-procurement system. Most of these delays were caused by the timeline for contracting and implementation of IPA-funded projects.

This Report aims to provide an independent review of the achievement of the key objectives and bring to attention the activities that, although originally not foreseen, impacted the implementation of the reform, but also to cross-refer the official reports on the progress of the reform.

Previous report is available here.

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Video: Why are we against proposed changes of the Law on Free Access to Information

Institute Alternative is one of 44 organisations demanded that Government give up on proposed Law on Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information

We demand from Government and Ministry of Public Administration to give up on proposed changes of the Law on Free Access to Information. Proposed changes introduce new restrictions and drastically reduce the transparency of institutions, contrary to international standards.

This is the list of signatories of the open letter:

  1. Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector – MANS
  2. NGO Human Rights Action – HRA
  3. NGO Institute Alternative – IA
  4. NGO The Centre for Monitoring and Research – CEMI
  5. NGO Center for Democratic Transition – CDT
  6. Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro – CIN-CG
  7. NGO 35 mm
  8. Association of Professional Journalists of Montenegro
  9. NGO Centre for Democracy and Human Rights – CEDEM
  10. NGO Center for Civil Liberties – CEGAS
  11. Politikon Network
  12. Environmental Movement OZON
  13. NGO Center for Protection and Research of Birds – CZIP
  14. NGO Green home
  15. NGO Expeditio
  16. Organisation KOD
  17. NGO Media Centre
  18. NGO Women’s Rights Center – CŽP
  19. NGO Women’s Safe House – SŽK
  20. NGO Association of Youth with Disabilities of Montenegro – UMHCG
  21. Association of Paraplegics of Montenegro
  22. NGO Montenegrin Ecologists Society
  23. NGO Breznica
  24. Durmitor Development Centre
  25. MJSJA – Dr. Martin Schneider – Jacoby Association
  26. NGO Eco Team
  27. NGO Anima
  28. NGO Workers from Bankrupt Companies in Montenegro
  29. Foundation “HELP – Action for North of Montenegro”
  30. NGO Institute for Business and Financial Literacy
  31. Hand of Friendship Foundation
  32. NGO Our Action
  33. NGO Multimedial Montenegro – Mmne
  34. NGO Hand to Hand
  35. NGO Association for implementation of rights – UZIP
  36. NGO Brain
  37. NGO Viva vita
  38. NGO Circle of Life
  39. NGO Hope
  40. NGO Center for Entrepreneurship
  41. Network for education and development of support services for persons with disabilities – MERSP
  42. NGO Media team
  43. NGO Network for Change
  44. Trade Union of Montenegrin Physicians

Read the open letter here.