The coalition "For the Future of Montenegro" announced that the concept of the Draft Law on Agents of Foreign Influence will be based on the Law on the Registration of Foreign Agents in the United States of America.
They say that they regret that the law will obviously not have the support of the parliamentary majority and that they do not understand the concern that the act will ban the activities of any non-governmental organization, but that "everything became crystal clear with yesterday's reactions".
"We did not want to disrupt yesterday's synchronized reaction of the representatives of the NGO and the opposition, who unprovoked started a discussion about the model of the proposal for the Law on Agents of Foreign Influence, without them even having a chance to see it. completely to relax them, because this bill is in the early stages of development, but despite that, they made a mistake at the start when it comes to the practice and the model on which it is based during yesterday, we are already doing it now," the ZBCG coalition announced.
They explained that the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires that persons or organizations representing the views of foreign governments, political parties or entities be registered with the Department of Justice, while its aims to provide transparency regarding lobbying activities conducted by foreigners in the US and to enable the public and authorities to be aware of the influence of foreign interests on the country's domestic policy and legislative processes.
Persons or organizations that fall under this law, ZBCG adds, must regularly submit reports on their activities, income and expenses related to the representation of foreign interests.
"Taking all of this into account, we believe that in accordance with the democratic and western achievements that we all strive for together, this law will be discussed in a civilized and purposeful way, because the citizens of Montenegro have the right to know how the organizations that give their every day are financed court on numerous matters of public interest We regret that this law will obviously not have the support of the parliamentary majority and we really do not see why anyone would mind increasing the transparency of the entire society on the model of the greatest democratic achievements of the Western world.
"At the very end, we do not understand the fear and concern that this law will prohibit the activities of any NGO, because there was not a single word about it in our previous announcement, and it certainly will not be in the draft law either. If they are already so advocating for transparency of the functioning of political organizations and state institutions, they should actually be the first to welcome such a law, but we believe that yesterday's reactions made everything crystal clear to the citizens of Montenegro," the announcement concludes.
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