Parliamentary oversight in Montenegro collapsed after the 2016 elections, and the legislative chamber, which should be the strength of the state, became its brake on European integration.
This is the position of the former president of the Assembly, now opposition MP Ranko Krivokapić (SDP) and his colleagues from the Democratic Front and the Special Club of MPs.
Strengthening parliamentary supervision is one of the recommendations of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament, which adopted the Report on the recommendations for enlargement by the rapporteur Tonin Picula, which he highlighted in an interview with "Vijesta" two days ago.
During Krivokapić's mandate, the Assembly had a very active and controlling role, which is why DPS leader and then Prime Minister Milo Đukanović accused him of "parliamentary dictatorship".
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Krivokapić told "Vijesti" yesterday that the degradation of the Assembly and its reduction to "decor and voting machinery" has always been the key goal of every autocratic government.
"That's why now, from the strength of the state, the Parliament has become its brake in European integration. Even in the current pandemic, we are constantly being warned from high European addresses not to abuse it in order to achieve absolute control and devastate parliamentarism and the constitutional division of power. Only (Darko) Pajović and this convocation did not sit for fifty days, without the prime minister's hour. The Croatian Parliament with 151 deputies sat in the West Inn hotel and approved all the measures of the Croatian Government, and in our country the Assembly was not even allowed to convene," Krivokapić said.
Parliament, as he added, instead of being an institution that expands democratic freedoms and develops a culture of dialogue, has become the opposite of that, and the Penal Code, which bypassed the culture of dialogue, was passed by the parliamentary majority.
One of the leaders of the DF and member of the Security Committee, Nebojša Medojević, agrees that the Assembly was a strong control mechanism during Krivokapić's mandate, stating that he doubts the fulfillment of EP recommendations in the election year.
"Except if there is no strong pressure on the local government," Medojević said.
He reminds that the Law on Parliamentary Oversight was passed and numerous control hearings before the security committee, when the leaders of the intelligence sector and the prosecution reported on "Listing", murders, attacks on journalists, "Balkan warrior", illegal wiretapping of diplomats...
"Great progress in parliamentary oversight took place from 2007 to 2008, when the Security and Defense Committee was one of the most dynamic parliamentary bodies... That was quite correct then, we had internal pressure from the opposition and external pressure from the EU and the USA . We had the Law on Parliamentary Supervision in the Security Sector, it was the only one in the region at the time. "They don't want essential control of the security sector because they know that there is the most abuse and crime, there are connections between politics and drug cartels, financing of political parties, especially the DPS, data on corruption of state bodies," Medojević said.
Medojević reminds that there has been a major weakening of parliamentary oversight since 2016 and the "fake coup d'état" and when the pressure from the EU and the US decreased.
"It also happened that the Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnić refuses to attend the sessions of the Security and Defense Committee, which has constitutional powers. Now they are treading on it", assessed Medojević.
Krivokapić says that the Assembly has become meaningless and servile with the intention of serving the autocratic regime: "In order for the parliament to be made its head, those blackmailed by various affairs had to come. There is no supervision and that is clear to our European partners. That is why the EC report says that the parliamentary committees almost unanimously support the draft laws proposed by the executive power, that its capacity to closely analyze the proposed regulations from the aspect of compliance with the EU acquis remains at a low level," said the SDP deputy.
Former chairman of the Committee for Economy, head of the Special Club of Deputies, Aleksandar Damjanović, believes that it is not necessary for Brussels to point out what every citizen sees, "that the Assembly in the current convocation is absolutely marginalized and without a supervisory and control function".
"The former parliamentary dictatorship has become a parliamentary caricature. This is evidenced not only by the numbers of serious control hearings, which are miserable, or by the fact that there was not a single parliamentary investigation during this convocation, but also by the suspension of the opposition's procedural and parliamentary rights to have duly proposed acts on the agenda. The hijacking of the long-established control mechanisms of budget supervision, as well as the control of the spending of parliamentary money, was formalized through the meaningless of the competent committee and hijacking by the parliamentary majority. Farce with the so-called the committee for the reform of the electoral legislation showed the true state of affairs in the Parliament", said Damjanović.
He adds that it also came from the politicization of part of the parliamentary service, the committees in which the majority of the opposition does not participate are just a picture of the senselessness of the parliament during these 3 and a half years, and the fact that the Parliament, during this convocation, never dealt with the control of the very problematic highway investment speaks volumes by herself.
The Vice President of the Democrats, Momo Koprivica, assessed that the EU clearly recognizes that the parliament has been reduced to a puppet level and that it does not exercise a basic control role in the constitutional system.
Koprivica says that in order for the parliament to have a controlling role, it is necessary to have a system of parliamentary democracy, and that is just a dead letter in Montenegro.
"In reality, the Assembly is not a controlling institution, but a controlled institution, which is especially evident when it unquestioningly passes unconstitutional laws proposed by the Government and when it allows it to be the bearer of the executive power, prosecution, etc. they humiliate by not coming to control hearings. As a result, the parliament, from the highest organ of state power, turned into a secondary organ, an organ of organs, that is, an organ of executive power. A democratic order cannot be established if the parliament is an auxiliary body of the Government for stamping regulations and legalizing its actions. Montenegro, unlike many countries, does not even have a Law on the Assembly. Without that law, there are no imperative norms on the relationship between the Assembly and other bodies," said Koprivica.
He assessed that several caricatured forms of work took place in the conditions of the epidemic, which make the decisions of the Assembly and assembly committees legally invalid and politically null and void. Starting with the electronic session and the Skype quorum at the Committee for Economy, Budget and Finance, although that form of work is not recognized by the Rules of Procedure and the principle "everything that is not expressly allowed is prohibited" applies to state bodies, until the classification of deputies into five echelons during the last session , "where they showed that their meeting had only one purpose - to legalize the pre-election schemes of the Government, adopting for the entire time only one paragraph in two laws".
"All the institutions that are in charge of the rule of law, and which are established by the Assembly, are either in an acting state or were irregularly formed. Let's say, the Judicial Council is in an acting state, without constitutional and democratic legitimacy, as is the VDT, and the Assembly illegally elected the ASK Council. This is the situation for the needs of the authorities, made possible and prolonged by the fact that the DPS, in fear of fair elections, undermined the Committee for Electoral Reform, which had the strong support of the EU. The responsibility of that Committee was to create solutions for the Judicial Council, KAS and other institutions, and within our 16 legal proposals and 200 solutions for fair elections, there were also complete legal proposals and solutions for those institutions, which would lead to the dismantling of the DPS monopoly. over those institutions and their complete liberation", reminded Koprivica.
The assembly was a place of dialogue, agreement and trust building
Ranko Krivokapić reminds that four control hearings were held in 2018, while the number of consultative hearings dropped significantly. He states that there were 2018 of them in 30, and 43 the year before. He reminds that, until this convocation, the Assembly was the best-rated constitutional institution in all EU annual reports.
"Many in the non-governmental sector, the opposition, and the media call that time the "golden age of Montenegrin parliamentarism." In the challenges that would be historic for any parliamentarianism: during the NATO bombing, the referendum on the restoration of independence, the adoption of the new Constitution, amendments to the Constitution... The Assembly was a place of dialogue, agreements and building trust", stated Krivokapić.
As he added, the parliament was the flywheel of Euro-Atlantic integrations and through parliamentary diplomacy, the Cetinje Parliamentary Forum..., and he managed to create the first transitional government. "The parliamentary dialogue created a free public service in 2016, and now, with the illegal removal of representatives of the non-governmental sector, this convocation of the Assembly would bring Crna Gra to the 105th place on the list of media freedoms. It is clear to our European partners that the degree of democracy and development of a society is directly related to the strength, importance and position of the parliament in it," Krivokapić said.
The board refused to invite the leaders of the security services
Medojević cited the session of the Security Committee as an example of "how DPS perceives parliamentary supervision", where all his proposals for consultative hearings were rejected on Thursday.
He proposed that the leaders of the security services explain to the deputies, as he said, the unconstitutional and illegal arrest of citizens, as well as the possibility that the covid infection is a consequence of the work of some security services. The MP also initiated a consultative hearing due to, as he stated, the illegal arrest of the DF MP in December last year, that is, after the incident before the vote on the Law on Freedom of Religion.
Medojević requested the hearing of NKT President Milutin Simović, Interior Minister Mevludin Nuhodžić and Police Director Veselin Veljović:
"I believe that there was a gross violation of human rights and abuse of the security services, which illegally arrested people based on the orders of the NKT, without a state of emergency. All that the police could find related to the violation of the Act on Protection from Infectious Diseases. It prescribes misdemeanor, not criminal liability. Arrest based on discretionary decisions of the police, a gross violation of the Constitution and human rights is the reason to call the president of the NKT," he explained.
Medojević asked for information from the National Security Agency on whether it was a hybrid war or a terrorist act, stating that in January of this year, "2.200 Chinese entered Montenegro at the time when the epidemic was raging."
Ibrahimović: We are improving the control function
Bosniak Party MP Ervin Ibrahimović says that quality control and supervision are among the most important functions of the parliament, and represent one of the prerequisites for the development of parliamentary democracy.
"I believe that the Assembly is continuously improving its control function and transparency. This is supported by numerous studies that classify the Parliament of Montenegro among the institutions with an enviable degree of transparency. I believe that the latest situation regarding the Covid-19 virus has confirmed this thesis. At the Collegium and parliamentary committees, and then at a special thematic session, all information related to the actions and measures taken by the Government of Montenegro in this case are considered," Ibrahimović told "Vijesta".
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