The Government of Montenegro allocated, at the request of the State Election Commission (SEC), 1,35 million euros from the current budget reserve for the implementation of early parliamentary elections that will be held on Sunday.
At today's session, the government adopted the Information on the provision of funds for the election of deputies to the Parliament of Montenegro.
"Bearing in mind that these costs could not be planned by the Budget Law, the Government, at the request of the SEC, allocated EUR 1.353.571 from the current budget reserve for the implementation of early elections," the Government's announcement states.
At the session, the Proposal for the Law on Amendments to the Law on Free Legal Aid was determined.
The Government said that the application of the Law so far has indicated the existence of certain deficiencies that must be eliminated in order to ensure efficient and effective access to justice.
"In the discussion, it was emphasized that the goal of amending the Law is to overcome the problems that are reflected in the impossibility of exercising the right to free legal aid, and at the same time the right to access to court for victims of torture, children as victims of criminal offenses against sexual freedom, as well as children who initiated the procedure for the protection of the rights of the child, i.e. a lawsuit for the exercise of parental rights", the announcement states.
It is added that the Justice Reform Strategy 2019-2022 recognizes the importance of this issue within the strategic goal of "Strengthening accessibility, transparency and public trust in the judiciary", which represents a guideline for developing and improving the system of free legal aid.
The Government approved the Draft Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code of Montenegro.
As they said, the reason for the amendments to the Law is to harmonize it with the conventions of the Council of Europe and the United Nations, the legal standards of the European Court of Human Rights and other international documents.
"Further modernization of the general and special part of the Criminal Code based on the good practice of other European criminal law systems, elimination of certain legal inconsistencies and further improvement of certain existing solutions, will enable Montenegro to have a modern and European criminal code that will represent a good basis for the fight against modern forms crime," the announcement states.
At today's session, the Proposal for the Law on Confirmation of the International Agreement on the Exchange of Data for the Purpose of Verification of Property Declarations, which was signed on March 19, 2021 in Belgrade, was determined.
The Government said that by confirming the International Agreement on the exchange of data for the purpose of verifying asset declarations, Montenegro expresses its readiness to further improve the system of preventing and suppressing corruption and its commitment to improving the mechanisms of international-regional cooperation in the field of preventing and suppressing corruption.
"The purpose of the International Agreement on the exchange of data for the purpose of verifying declarations of assets is to prevent corruption with the help of direct administrative exchange of data related to declared assets between the signatory parties to the Agreement," explained the Government.
According to them, the Agreement establishes the data to be exchanged, the procedure for exchanging data on request, the possibility of automatic data exchange, and the right to refuse a request.
The Government said that the agreement also determined the mechanisms for searching and using open databases and direct access, the possibility of spontaneous data exchange, confidentiality, determining the contact point, the issue of the costs of assistance provided on the basis of the Agreement, as well as language.
As they stated, the process of preparing the Agreement is part of the activities carried out by the Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative with the support of the Austrian Development Agency.
"The draft agreement was supported by the heads of state and government at the summit in Trieste in 2017," the announcement reminds.
The Government said that the commitment to implementing preventive actions against corruption is recognized as one of the key elements in Chapter 23 - Judiciary and fundamental rights of negotiations on full membership in the European Union.
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