A number of relevant international indicators that speak of the stagnation and regression of Montenegro should be a great warning to the European Union (EU) and the European Commission (EC) not to close their eyes and not agree to make up the unpleasant Montenegrin reality, and the first opportunity for this will be the Commission's annual report about Montenegro in May, said the president of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Alternatives (IA), Stevo Muk.
"Otherwise it will be obvious that, while there is no progress in all independent domestic and foreign reports, there is impressive progress so far only in the reports of the Government and the EU. The Union must explain how the country which, like others in the region, claims to be a captive state is recording such great results. It is necessary to resolve this apparent paradox in an honest and transparent manner. The sooner the better for the credibility of the EU in Montenegro and the region", said Muk.
Montenegro records a decline or, more rarely, stagnation, in all lists and reports of independent, influential international organizations published in the last six months. It fell back on the lists of Reporters Without Borders, Transparency International (TI), the Heritage Foundation, and the World Bank (WB) on the ease of doing business, while remaining in the group of "partly free countries" where it is after the fall of 2016 according to the findings of Freedom House, which should soon publish more detailed evaluations and an overview of the state of democracy in "nations in transition".
The Government responded to the question about the decline or stagnation in these lists by citing parts of the report or stating the activities they are undertaking.
In the latest World Bank report on the ease of doing business, Montenegro ranked 50th out of 190 ranked countries, which is a drop of eight positions compared to the previous year.
The Ministry of Finance repeated the statements from the SB Report that this does not necessarily mean that the business environment in Montenegro has worsened.
"SB did not note that there have been regulatory changes that have a bad effect on the business environment. The change in position means that other countries have reformed and therefore progressed better in the overall ranking", according to the Ministry of Finance.
The change in rank downwards, they added, must certainly represent an additional impulse to all departments to intensify the regulatory reforms they are implementing or to start with some that are being awaited. The Government did not refer to the list of global economic freedoms of the American Heritage Foundation, according to which Montenegro was in 92nd place and where a drop of 24 places was recorded compared to the last list. In the document of that foundation, it is stated that the judiciary in Montenegro has long been politicized, corruption permeates healthcare, education and all levels of government, including law enforcement. When it comes to the corruption index, Montenegro is in 67th place according to the Transparency International (TI) survey. That, as stated by TI, is a decrease of one percent.
"Despite progress in European integration, the state needs to significantly improve the rule of law. Concerns regarding the financing of parties as well as the financing of elections are emphasized, which casts a shadow on the election results", the organization states.
The country that can boast of success on the lists of influential international organizations is Macedonia, while the findings for other countries of the region are different depending on the observed area.
Only Serbia is in a similar position to Montenegro, where it fell more significantly on the lists dealing with the issue of democracy and media freedom.
So this year, according to the Freedom House report, it was in the group of "partially free countries" together with other countries in the region, except for Croatia, which is a "free country". That organization mentions two politicians in a negative context, putting them on the same level: "President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović continued to consolidate state power around themselves and their cliques, undermining the basic standards of good leadership and going beyond their constitutional powers ".
Muk claims that the warnings that the institutions are captured by a corrupt and undemocratic government, that the government disguises reforms with technical activities, false statistics and biased interpretations have been confirmed. The government, he says, has long been abusing the fact that many countries in the region are not equal participants in the race for EU membership, so Montenegro looks very good in the regional perspective. He believes that Đukanović is abusing his role as a favorite of the West, which is why he is forgiven for his obvious corruption and autocracy.
"It is obvious that assessments are more objective where reports are prepared by independent foreign and international organizations, without influence or with very limited influence of politics. It is an open question whether and to what extent these evaluations will become part of the official evaluations in the key centers of international politics and to what extent they will want to speak loudly about such possible evaluations", concluded Muk.
You can't fool all the people all the time
You can fool some people all the time and all the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time.
With that quote from Abraham Lincoln, Executive Director of the Center for Civic Education (CGO) Daliborka Uljarević commented on the fact that Montenegro is experiencing regression or stagnation in the area of the rule of law, but also the environment for the development of healthy economic initiatives.
“This is an intersection with two roads. One is the continuation of the hunt for "internal enemies" who are breaking this imputed rosy reality. The second is to take seriously those evaluations, but also the dissatisfaction of citizens, only a part of which we saw through this year's protests, and moving from simulation to real reforms. The second time is undoubtedly more unpleasant for the authorities, but the only correct therapy is to treat the ailments that burden our society, or it all boils down to maintaining positions of power", stated Uljarević.
Freedom of the media – the weakest link of the government
Uljarević recalled the party's takeover of RTCG with "perverse abuse of the project financed by the EU, on which the CGO cooperated with the illegally dismissed management of RTCG".
"It was a multifaceted bad political decision by the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and, after the restoration of independence, the first example of a direct confrontation of the Montenegrin authorities with the USA, the EU and other interested Western actors, in which they too saw the depth of the gap between washed-up rhetoric and the party's trampling of institutions ", she said.
Montenegro has fallen again on the media freedom index of Reporters Without Borders and is in 104th place in the group of Kuwait, Mozambique, Ukraine and is the worst placed country in comparison to the other former Yugoslav republics.
As reasons, Reporters Without Borders stated that in May 2018, "Vijesti" journalist Olivera Lakić was shot in the leg, and that journalist Jovo Martinović was sentenced to 18 months in prison for allegedly smuggling narcotics.
They also pointed to the government's pressure on the Public Service and the fact that state institutions support pro-government media by paying them to publish their advertisements.
In its response to "News", the Ministry of Culture dealt with its normative competences, reminding that the Government started the reform of media legislation last year with the support of relevant international organizations. They stated that, in order to further improve media freedom and freedom of expression, the drafting of the Law on Media, as well as amendments to the Law on the National Public Broadcaster RTCG and electronic media, is underway.
"The government also adopted the Implementation Plan of the recommendations from the JUFREX Analysis of the media sector of the Council of Europe, which represents a significant framework for regulating the entire media environment. According to the analysis, a wide range of institutions - courts, prosecutor's offices, police administration, ministries, regulators, national public service, to which the recommendations were addressed, are responsible for specific activities with clear measures in terms of dynamics and indicators of implementation", the department stated.
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