Democratic Montenegro called on the members of the parliamentary majority not to support the amendments to the Law on Expropriation.
The vice-president of that party, Vladimir Martinović, said at the press conference that, in case of support, the Democrats' deputies will initiate proceedings before the Constitutional Court to determine the unconstitutionality of the provisions of such a law.
He explained that the existence of public interest is the first condition for expropriation, which must be met.
Martinović indicated that the Law on Spatial Planning and Construction of Buildings stipulates that the adoption of a planning document establishes the public interest in the expropriation of immovable property for the purpose of building planned buildings.
Therefore, as he added, the expropriation of anyone's private property can be started as soon as the planning document is adopted and it is announced that it is in the public interest.
"That's why the claim of the proponent of the law that immovable property can be expropriated only for the construction of facilities from Article 4a of the Law on Expropriation is fundamentally incorrect and represents an attempt to mislead the public," said Martinović.
He said that the same law gives the Government the authority to determine the public interest in the expropriation of immovable property on the basis of a special study, if it is not determined by a special law.
According to Martinović, in this way, without legally prescribed conditions and elaborated criteria, the Government's decision acquires the force of law, and its elaboration is replaced by a detailed urban plan.
As he stated, the novelty is that in that case the Government's decision on determining the public interest will also contain a determined amount of fair compensation, whereby the owner of the immovable property will only have the option of initiating proceedings before the Administrative Court.
Martinović said that the draft law enables the owner of the immovable property to participate in the procedure that has already been completed.
He said that the amount of fair compensation is determined by a five-member commission formed by the competent administrative authority before passing a decision on expropriation, but that it is not determined how the commission decides and what happens if one of its members has a different assessment of the value of the real estate.
The Vice-President of the Democrats warned that the offered solution, that the fair compensation for expropriated real estate will be determined in accordance with the Methodology for real estate valuation, is not a guarantee that the owner of the expropriated real estate will be fairly compensated.
"Such a possibility exists because nowhere is it defined which of the values recognized by the Methodology will be taken to determine fair compensation: fair value, fair market value, market value, investment value, synergistic value, liquidation value or another of those recognized by the adopted Methodology ", Martinovic said.
As he explained, the right to take possession of the expropriated immovable property is acquired by the expropriation beneficiary on the day the decision on expropriation becomes final.
Martinović believes that the regulations additionally increase the risk of drastic abuses of the institute of expropriation.
"Primarily, we think of the risk that the expropriation "in the public interest" does not turn into the seizure of private property, especially when we bear in mind that the sale of Montenegrin citizenship has begun, as Milo Đukanović stated, to credible investors," said Martinović.
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