Representatives of the non-governmental sector will be included in the parliamentary dialogue, especially in the second two phases, said the President of the Assembly, Ranko Krivokapić, at the international conference "Civil society decides?".
At the conference organized by the Center for the Development of Non-Governmental Organizations (CRNVO), representatives of NGOs criticized the attitude of institutions, especially the Government, towards the participation of the civil sector in working bodies, with the assessment that, even where they are represented, the opinion of their representatives is often marginalized and over-voted .
Goran Đurović from the Coalition of NGOs Cooperation to the Goal pointed to the statement of Prime Minister Milo Đukanović in which, as he stated, the prime minister said that there would be no favorable attitude towards the participation of NGOs in the process of confidence in the election process.
Deputy Prime Minister Duško Marković said that Đurović misinterpreted that statement.
"In that sense, the Prime Minister did not say that he does not want NGOs in the process of monitoring, monitoring, and even support in creating conditions for the implementation of electoral legislation, but he disagreed with NGOs participating in the political dialogue, because that is not the field for them," he said. is Marković.
Krivokapić said that the NGO sector will certainly be included in the parliamentary dialogue.
"Certainly the NGO sector will be involved, and that is the agreement and my insistence during the constitution of the Working Group of the Parliamentary Dialogue that the non-governmental sector be present with its written proposals and physical presence", said Krivokapić.
He said that there is little time left, about 15 days, for the first steps, until the next parliamentary dialogue of party presidents.
"The NGO sector will be present and will help, I even think much more in the other two phases, i.e. areas. We have more or less set the issue regarding the electoral legislation, but the media scene is such that there is no progress, I dare to say that it is going backwards", stated Krivokapić.
According to him, there is a big challenge ahead to find a legal model so that the freedoms that have been given are not abused.
"This measure between granting freedom and abuse is always sensitive, especially in a small country with an atypical political system", Krivokapić said, explaining that "it is an atypical political system when one party is dominant for 45 plus 25 years".
He said that, despite this, a way can be found to raise professionalism.
"For journalists' associations to finally start defending the profession, and not politicians, nor victims, like the NGO sector," Krivokapić added.
He told the NGO representatives that they will be in the working groups, and that this part of the parliamentary dialogue led by party presidents has its own specificities.
"For the first time, party presidents met at the same table in 25 years. That fact is enough for us to know how specific that dialogue is. It is necessary to sort out a lot of frustrations, I will be open - and a lot of pains that have accumulated on those two sides of the political space", explained Krivokapić.
And that, as he stated, is part of negotiation, getting to know each other and reconciliation.
"So that, as the most politically responsible people in the country, we can reach the next stage, which is a clear understanding of the common and indisputable interests of all of us, which are free and fair elections," Krivokapić added.
He said that in the part of controlling the use of state resources, there is a lot of room for the initiatives of the NGO sector.
"All party representatives, including the Democratic Party of Socialists and others, have accepted that we should go with this model. Unfortunately, now we will not have enough time for you to be active in the verbal part of the discussion as before, but in the next phase there will be more time", said Krivokapić.
At the conference, the results of research on citizens' attitudes towards NGOs, as well as the level of their trust in other institutions, the level of citizens' information about NGOs, as well as their assessment of the impact of NGOs on social change, were presented.
Marković said that he was surprised by the content of the research, stating that he was convinced that they had developed a good model of communication with the civil sector, "drawing from it what we do not have in our administration".
"It is obvious that we are at a standstill, and that now we and you need to seriously deal with these issues. It is not logical that on some public calls for important issues of defining policies, we have no interest from NGOs, and that several thousand apply for the competition for the allocation of funds", Marković believes.
The Executive Director of the Center for Civic Education said that they forget how these public calls are announced, that the time frames are unrealistic and that the documentation is demanding.
"All this was preceded by, to put it mildly, the disappointment of members of working groups from the NGO sector in the previous period, whose views were completely marginalized, and to whom even elementary information was not available. That is, in fact, the true measure of that partnership, even when it formally exists," stated Uljarević.
According to her, the number of NGO representatives in bodies may or may not be an indicator of some kind of better cooperation. "But in the last two or three years it has been quite bad in terms of depth, not to say that there is a negative trend".
Commenting on the Prime Minister's position on the participation of representatives of the NGO sector in the parliamentary dialogue, Uljarević assessed that it is much more important how he characterized them.
"If I understood correctly from some deputies who were at that session, he called the NGO representatives idlers. That is the political position of the Prime Minister, and how can we expect that the Government really takes the views of NGOs seriously", said Uljarević.
Marina Vujačić from the Association of Disabled Youth asked if someone from an NGO is expected to come forward to work as a volunteer in a working body, if there is not even for basic things.
"We don't need research that confirms this, we all know what the situation is when it comes to financing NGOs," said Vujačić.
Jovana Marović from the Institute of Alternatives assessed that there are persistent attempts to close the negotiation process with the European Union for the civil sector and the public.
"Since the establishment of the Council for the Rule of Law, we ask you why you don't open those sessions to the public? If we in the working groups need to contribute to that process, we need to be informed about what the Council has to say about the problems in that process," said Marović.
Marković said that the Council for the Rule of Law consists of elders of state institutions and representatives of state bodies. "We talk specifically about what we had an obligation to do, why we didn't do it, when and how. There is no space for NGOs, it's like a professional collegium in a ministry," explained Marković.
The head of the EU Delegation in Montenegro, Mitja Drobnič, said that the contribution of the NGO sector in shaping and monitoring public policies ensures effective consideration of citizens' interests.
"That is why it is a key condition of democracy, and every country should recognize it and treat it as a positive development," said Drobnič.
He emphasized that the quality of democracy can be measured by the degree of participation of all its members.
"I hope that the cooperation between state and civil actors will progress when all parties recognize its benefits in finding common solutions to the current challenges that the country is facing. This was the case in all EU member states, and I am sure that Montenegro will not be an exception," Drobnič concluded.
CRNVO Executive Director Ana Novaković emphasized that by participating in working and other bodies and consultations, the NGO sector does not lose its basic roles in society - corrective and critical.
"Civil society should carry out these two roles in parallel, and by participating in the bodies of the executive power, it cannot lose its independence, unless it wants to," explained Novaković.
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