We appeal to the ruling majority to respect the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly and enable the passage of opposition proposals in accordance with Article 75, as well as the exercise of the control function of the Assembly.
The Rules of Procedure guarantee the right of the opposition that, twice during the regular session, at their request, the committee decides on the control hearing. More and more frequent challenges to this right threaten the control function of the parliament.
Today’s non-decision on the request for a control hearing of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Filip Ivanović, and the Minister of European Affairs, Maida Gorčević, on the subject of “Deviation of the government representatives from the official foreign policy of Montenegro and the consequences that this has on the EU integration process”, submitted by five members of the opposition, showed that the parliamentary majority does not respect then right given to the opposition.
We remind that, in 2020, the representatives of the parties that make up this parliamentary majority changed the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly to enable the opposition’s right to a control hearing by minority initiative twice instead of once during the session, and that this was then presented as a democratic step forward. Difficult passage of opposition proposals for control hearings was also demonstrated at the session of the Committee for Economy, Finance, and Budget held at the beginning of March, where it was decided to request the opinion of the Collegium of the President of the Assembly regarding two minority initiatives to hold control hearings.
Additionally, although the Committee for Security and Defense subsequently adopted the initiative on the control hearing on the occasion of the election of the acting director of the Police Administration, the adoption of this initiative was followed by dilemmas regarding how it should be decided on this matter – whether it should be voted on or not. The initiative was adopted at the next session, but the control hearing has not yet been conducted.
Bojana Pravilović
Institute Alternative
