The Assembly will subsequently vote on the confirmation of the Agreement banning subsidies for illegal fishing, but also on amendments to the Law on expropriation, restitution of confiscated property rights and compensation.
Today, the Parliament finished the debate on these issues.
Director of the Fisheries Directorate, Katarina Burzanović, explained that with the ratification of the protocol of the Marrakesh Agreement on the establishment of the World Trade Organization, subsidies for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and activities related to it will be prohibited. She stated that in this way, the sustainability of the oceans and seas will be achieved, and that it will not affect the current fishing policy in the country.
Social Democrat MP Boris Mugoša said that the import of fish to Montenegro is huge, he questioned the lack of fishing development, the lack of ports for landing, that the fishing fleets are worn out, that the fishermen are in trouble...
No port, little export
Vladislav Bojović from the Democratic People's Party said that the lack of ports is a decades-long problem in Montenegro and that stronger cooperation with local self-governments is needed in order to agree on locations for these projects.
MP Aleksandra Despotović from the Democratic Party of Socialists stated that in addition to the increased import of fish, we should also work on food safety, because the number of food controls at the borders in 2022 was 247, while in 2023 it was 24 or 25.
The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Vladimir Joković, pointed out that the import of fish in Montenegro is large, with the country catching less than one percent of the total catch from the Adriatic. Among the steps in this sector, he stated that so far 12 ships have been imported through the MIDAS program for institutional development and strengthening of agriculture, and that eight more are on the way. He pointed out that there were exemptions from excise duties on fuel, subsidies, aid for repairs, equipment...
Joković said that he would contact the Directorate for Food Safety about the situation related to food control. He pointed out that fishing harbors are also necessary to close the chapter for entering the European Union, and that one is being built on Cape Đeran, while another is being planned in the Bay of Kotor.
MP of the Europe Now Movement (PES) Vasilije Čarapić stated that the protocol has been negotiated for 20 years and that the goal is to establish rules for granting subsidies for fisheries at the global level. He added that order must be brought into fishing and that in this way, illegal fishing will be meaningless because fishermen will have to prove that they are fishing in legal streams in order to receive subsidies.
Changes required for projects
PES MP Darko Dragović explained that the expropriation processes were transferred from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, and that this will be confirmed by changes in the law.
He said that these steps are a prerequisite for the Government's announced infrastructure projects, and that Montenegro can become a construction site after the regulation of expropriation at the state and local level. He added that the condition for the implementation of the projects is to arrange property legal relations.
The Democratic Party of Socialists stated that the situation arose after the separation or merger of several administrations, and that this confirms that the system is ineffective. They sent an appeal to the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs to be more active in this work and to take the necessary steps as soon as possible.
They pointed out that the government has been taking these steps for five months since its formation, and that they are only now taking care of the citizens.
SD deputy Boris Mugoša said the same thing, adding that mergers and separations of departments were not accompanied by legal changes and that there was no reason to wait five months. He requested that all laws be amended so that similar things do not happen in the future.
New Serbian Democracy MP Dejan Đurović said that the property was confiscated in 1945 and that it is necessary to enable its return, but also to amend the law on the use of space, that is, that the locations that were used for construction cannot be returned to the original owners.
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