Koprivica: The Board could not start the hearings of candidates for the Judicial Council due to the delay of the Ministry

It took the Ministry of Justice more than 10 days to submit certificates that the candidates for members of the Judicial Council had not been criminally punished, which is why the competent parliamentary committee could not quickly determine the list of candidates and start the hearings.

This was announced by the President of the Committee for Political System, Judiciary and Administration, Momo Koprivica, responding to today's appeal by Prime Minister Dritan Abazović to the Parliament to begin hearings of candidates for the Judicial Council as soon as possible.

"To make a program so that they can carry it out in the shortest possible time, not at the expense of quality, of course, but so that it has some dynamics," said Abazović today, and Koprivica considers it inappropriate that the prime minister, who is elected by the Parliament and answers to it, and not the other way around, he suggests to the Assembly and the Assembly Committee regarding the election of members of the Judicial Council.

Koprivica adds that Abazović shows that he is "worryingly uninformed or is pretending to be so for the sake of cheap points".

As he said, he expected that Abazović would apologize for the astonishing inefficiency of the Government, that is, the competent Ministry of Justice.

The only delay, according to Koprivica, was due to "the inexplicable inefficiency of the Ministry of Justice from your Government, which was witnessed by all members of the Committee and the entire public, but that problem was also overcome after a strong appeal by the Committee".

"Besides interfering inappropriately in what is not his domain, Mr. Abazović has shown that he does not know the circumstances in his own country, and to make matters worse, he does not even know the facts regarding the things he is commenting on," Koprivica said.

He explained that at the 42nd session of the Committee, held on May 20, 2022, the text of the Public Call for the election of four members of the Judicial Council from among distinguished lawyers was determined, and that on May 24 the Public Call was published in the Official Gazette of Montenegro, Dnevni newspaper "Dan" and on the website of the Parliament of Montenegro, and that the deadline for submitting applications was June 8, 2022.

Koprivica states that 35 candidates applied for the public call. He adds that at the 43rd session of the Board, held on June 15, the list of registered candidates was determined and published on the website of the Parliament of Montenegro. A Commission for review and verification of submitted documentation was also formed, which held four meetings.

"At the 44th session of the Committee, held on June 27, 2022, it was established that the Ministry of Justice did not submit the certificates from the criminal records of the persons registered for the public summons. At the continuation of the 44th session, held on June 29, 2022, it was adopted "The report of the Commission for the verification and review of the documentation of the candidates registered for the above-mentioned public call, and in this regard it was concluded that 34 candidates meet all the conditions prescribed by the law. It was also concluded that only one candidate does not meet the required condition in terms of the necessary work experience," Koprivica said. .

In the announcement, he adds that at the same session, on June 29, "even two days before your cheap and theatrical call to the Parliament of Montenegro, an official decision established that the consultative hearings of the candidates will take place in the period from July 4 to 12, 2022. Yes five candidates are heard on the same day, and in addition, the dynamics of the duration of presentations, questions and answers is determined".

Koprivica points out that in accordance with the agreement from the continuation of the 44th hearing session, the hearings have been scheduled, and that the invitation letters to all the candidates were "already sent yesterday".

He added that at the 45th session, which will be held on July 4, the Board will begin the Consultative hearing of candidates, and that the 45th session will have six continuations in order to continuously hear all candidates.

"Also, for this Prime Minister, it is useful information that the Government he heads has submitted only five proposals to the Assembly in the past two months, since it was formed. I also expect that Mrs. Đurović, in order to protect the integrity of the Assembly as the highest legislative chamber and independent branches of government, send an appeal to the Prime Minister to focus on the competences of the Government of Montenegro defined by the Constitution", concludes the statement of the President of the Committee for Political System, Judiciary and Administration.