In the Montenegrin delegation at today's Intergovernmental Conference with the European Union, there will be no one from the Ministries of Internal Affairs and Justice, which prepared most of the laws that were a condition for receiving a positive Report on the fulfillment of temporary criteria for the rule of law, "Vijesti" has learned.
Answering questions from "Vijesti", the Minister of Justice Andrej Milović, accused the prime minister Milojko Spajić and his cabinet for the "scandalous attitude... towards people who presented the complete process of obtaining IBAR in Chapter 23", as well as wanting to "attribute other people's work and results to themselves."
"Unfortunately and without justification, this time too no one from the Ministry of Justice received an invitation from the Government of Montenegro to attend the Intergovernmental Conference of the European Union and Montenegro, which will be held on Wednesday in Brussels, despite the fact that our country will receive a positive report at that conference on the fulfillment of temporary benchmarks for chapters 23 and 24 (IBAR)," Milović said.
He said that it was similar at the Inter-Governmental Conference in January, "when the Government silently invited the European Commission and the EU Embassy in Montenegro for the Minister of Justice and the team of the Ministry of Justice, which worked on tasks related to fulfilling the mentioned criteria".
"As then, so today: neither the Minister of Justice, nor the Secretary of State Aleksandar Bakrac, nor the boss for chapter 23, Jelena Grdinić, nor the general director of the Directorate for Justice Momir Jauković, were not invited to this event, even though the Ministry of Justice produced 9 of the 12 laws needed for a positive IBAR," Milović said.
Minister of Interior Affairs Danilo Šaranović he told "Vijesti" that "the delegation is at the ministerial level", and that he is visiting the United Nations, where he will participate in the summit of police chiefs of the UN member states in New York.
Milović accused Spajić and his chief of staff Branka Krvavac that they obstructed him on other occasions as well.
"The prime minister and the head of the cabinet even canceled the scheduled press conference after the government session on May 29, at which the proposals for the IBAR law were determined, and that only for the reason that the minister of justice would not address the public. In this way, the Minister of Justice remained the only minister in the government who did not participate in any press conference of the Government after the session, all according to the directive of the head of the prime minister's office, who acts as a shadow prime minister and as a minister in all ministries where there are ministers from PES . The frustrations of the head of the cabinet are becoming more pronounced after I did not allow the heads of the cabinet and the prime minister's cabinet staff to lead the Ministry of Justice," Milović said.
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In addition to Spajić and Krvavac, they will allegedly be in the delegation of Montenegro Filip Ivanovic, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maida Gorcevic, Minister of European Affairs. All of them are members of the Europe Now Movement, of which Spajić is the president. The delegation includes Petar Markovic, Ambassador of Montenegro to the EU, Predrag Zenović, the chief negotiator of Montenegro with the EU, Milisav Raspopović, State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Milica Perišić i Velisa Jovanovic, Spajić's advisers.
The Government did not answer the questions of "Vijesti" as to why there are no ministers of justice and interior affairs, nor anyone from those two departments, among the members of the delegation.
The interlocutor from the Government said that Milović "asked himself last Sunday to go to other events". Milović told "Vijesta" that he accepted to participate in the ministerial conference on negotiations on the accession of the Western Balkan countries to the EU, which is being held on June 27 in Sarajevo, after he was not invited to go to the Intergovernmental Conference in Brussels on June 26 as a member of the delegation.
"This showdown with the Ministry of Justice, whose employees are scandalously trying to humiliate today, even though they are the ones who invested indescribably great effort and work into the result that others are using today for their own promotion, clearly shows that the prime minister and his cabinet are not shy about using all available methods in order to try to stifle voices that are not under their control, and politically immorally attribute other people's work and results to themselves and to those who have nothing to do with them," Milović said.
At the end of February, the PES presidency expelled Milović from the party, and this month Spajić sent a proposal to the parliament for the dismissal of the Minister of Justice. Previously, Milović accused the Prime Minister of leading PES, the Government and the country into an "abyss".
In the motion for dismissal, Spajić stated that the Government undertook a series of activities aimed at accelerating economic growth, European integration and strengthening the rule of law, and that the largest number of members of his cabinet expressed "full commitment to those priorities through professional and personal engagement." On the other hand, he states that Milović was on several occasions "not in line with what the Government's priorities were", and that "by his actions without prior consultation with the President and members of the Government, he damaged the overall context and reputation of the entire Government, as well as the parliamentary majority with whose support he was elected to the position of Minister of Justice".
"Given that Milović did not adequately respond to expectations and tasks, and that it is extremely important for the legal and political system that the position of Minister of Justice be performed by a person with the highest degree of trust from the executive power, I am convinced that the necessary steps have to be taken and access the minister's dismissal. Otherwise, further performance of the function would further threaten the interests of Montenegro from the aspect of internal and foreign policy, as well as the values of the 44th Government, which are related to meritocracy and strengthening of democratic and depoliticized institutions," the proposal reads.
In the original version of the text, it was written that the main negotiator Predrag Zenović is a member of PES. We apologize to Mr. Zenović and the readers.
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