IBAR close, the members will decide

Everything points to the fact that by the end of June, Montenegro will receive from the European Union (EU) the Report on the Assessment of the Fulfillment of the Temporary Criteria in Chapters 23 and 24 (IBAR), but this cannot be claimed with XNUMX% certainty, because the final decision is made by the members EU.

This is what a source from Brussels told "Vijesta" last night, after the European Commission (EC) sent the IBAR proposal to the Working Group of the EU Enlargement Council (COELA) earlier yesterday.

The interlocutor explained that COELA will discuss IBAR's proposal "two or three times", because that body deals not only with Montenegro, but also with the negotiation framework for Moldova and Ukraine. After that, he states, the IBAR proposal, with comments from that body, will be sent to the "higher floor" - the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States (COREPER II).

The source says that then follows the "ministerial level", where, he points out, there are generally "no surprises" and where the member states vote without discussion.

"After that comes the intergovernmental conference. On it, the two parties adopt the IBAR and the final criteria. Then the process is over," says the interlocutor.

The Parliament of Montenegro adopted amendments to the five remaining "IBAR laws" late last night. Amendments to the law on prevention of corruption, confiscation of property benefits obtained through criminal activity, on the media, on the national public broadcaster - Public Media Service of Montenegro, and on audiovisual media services were adopted.

Previously, on Thursday, seven "IBAR laws" were adopted - on lobbying, on courts, on the Judicial Council and judges, on the Judicial Training Center and the State Prosecutor's Office, on the Special State Prosecutor's Office, on the State Prosecutor's Office, and on the Code of Criminal Procedure .

During yesterday's debate on the Bill on confiscation of property benefits acquired through criminal activity, the Deputy Prime Minister Momo Koprivica he said that the ultimate goal is to introduce a civil-law model when it comes to confiscation of property.

In the current law, as he clarified, the criminal model was adopted, which showed "serious shortcomings in terms of length of time, which demotivated the persons who lead those proceedings".

Koprivica stated that the difference between the two models lies in the burden of proving the origin of the property and in the fact that the civil-law model, after a certain stage, is conducted independently of the criminal proceedings and does not depend on its outcome.

"Then we could explain how it is (former chief special prosecutor Milivoje) Katnic, over whom they are shedding tears, is building a million-euro house in Bajramovica," he said.

Koprivica said that she was a "favorite of the former government", the director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK). Jelena Perović, "put 13.000 euros in her pockets against the law". He also claims that "gentlemen from Master of Engineering and Bemax, financiers of the parties of the former government, who are engaged in criminal activities", damaged the state budget.

He announced that on July 1, 2022, he was the then formal owner of Bemax Veselin Kovačević transferred ownership of that firm to Ivan Ubović, son Ranko Ubović, for 750.000 euros.

"Kovačević founded the company Bemaks in 2007 with an initial capital of 12.000 euros. Then he subsequently paid another deposit, 300 thousand euros, and then he transferred funds of 437.000 euros. There is documentation about everything... When all that is added up, we get a nominal value of 749.000 euros. That's how much capital it is. And this one is for sale for 750.000 euros. Such a company was sold for only 750.000 euros. And where is the secret? You see a small difference between the nominal value and this realized value. Everything to pay a small tax", said Koprivica.

Explaining the proposed changes to the Law on Prevention of Corruption, Koprivica said that even that law is not ideal and that serious work on its additional reform is yet to come.

"But there were some urgent needs, which dictated the necessity of this quick solution", he announced.

He stated that one of the most important changes refers to the expansion of the circle of public officials, so now notaries, public bailiffs, bankruptcy trustees are included...

He said that the endangerment of the public interest, which points to the existence of corruption, was also specified, which eliminates some shortcomings in the application of the law.

Minister of Culture and Media Tamara Vujović, she said during the discussion about media laws that they are "the priority of all priorities" and said that the state "is both defended and built in the media field and with sound media legislation".

She said that these laws have been waiting for a long time and that is why Montenegro has been suspended from the European program "Creative Europe". She stated that these laws do not stand up to the claim of some MPs that they are new, because they have already been presented to the public in Brussels, where it was said that they are satisfied and that they should not be changed without the approval of the EC.

After that, as she reminded, the Europe Movement now had amendments approved by the EC, about which there were different opinions at the Government session.

"It's no secret that the ministers from my party have different opinions," she reminded.

Deputy Prime Minister Aleksa Becic and a number of ministers from Democratic Montenegro - Dragan Krapović (defense), Danilo Šaranović (internal affairs) and Vujović separated their opinion on the amendments to the media laws, in the part concerning the Public Service. With the proposed changes, it is foreseen that for the election of the director of RTCG, five years of work experience is required instead of ten, and that advertising in prime time is returned to the Public Service.

Member of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Ivan Vukovic, assessed that by adopting the proposed solutions, the private media would take "a lot of money that was provided to them by the last DPS government".

DPS and SD protested because the Government sent them Koprivica instead of Milović

At the beginning of yesterday's parliamentary session, part of the opposition demanded that the proposals of the two Government laws continue to be "defended" by the Minister of Justice, Andrej Milović, and not by the Vice President of the Executive Power, Momo Koprivica. On Thursday evening, the government decided that instead of Milović, Koprivić is represented in the parliament, because the Minister of Justice accepted an amendment (of a technical nature) to one of the laws without the knowledge of the executive branch.

The DPS and the Social Democrats (SD) left the debate on the laws on preventing corruption and confiscating property benefits acquired through criminal activity, and returned to the session when the debate on the media laws began.

DPS MP Andrija Nikolić said that it is an unprecedented practice to change the proponent's representative during the discussion, and that it is disrespectful to "the hard-working people from the Ministry of Justice who worked on the laws for a year."

"The government is trying to make its ministers 'puppets' who do not have the integrity and autonomy provided by the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, to come to the parliament and accept the amendments," he said.

Milatović already has seven laws

The seven "IBAR laws" adopted by the Parliament on Thursday were sent yesterday to the President of the Republic, Jakov Milatović, for signature.

According to the Constitution (Article 94), the head of state is obliged to promulgate the law within seven days of its adoption, that is, three days if the law was adopted by emergency procedure, or to return it to the parliament for re-decision.

The president is obliged to announce the re-adopted law.