The report of the European Commission (EC) on Montenegro, despite the assessment of progress, brings numerous criticisms, requests for concrete results and new recommendations aimed at implementing the adopted laws, said the Alternative Institute (IA).
From that non-governmental organization (NGO), they stated that the EC Report brings an average progress rating per chapter of 3,21, while the readiness rating is 3,20 and shows little progress compared to previous years.
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"Although these are the highest scores recorded so far, the percentage is measured in decimals," added IA.
They reminded that the EC applies two levels of assessment - progress assessment and state/readiness section.
The first level, as explained by the IA, refers to the assessment of the overall situation in the areas covered by individual chapters, while the second level focuses on the separate assessment of the progress achieved during twelve months.
"Even though it is about the observed progress, for essential reforms it is extremely important that the EU implements the announcements about the improved monitoring system. Especially with regard to the promise that progress in key chapters (23 and 24) will be accompanied by a comprehensive assessment of progress in the reform of public administration and democratic institutions," the statement said.
The IA pointed out that the largest part of the adopted recommendations within the cluster, which refers to the fundamental chapters from last year's report, related precisely to the adoption of laws and strategic documents.
"Those recommendations have been replaced in this report by insisting on the implementation of the adopted documents," said the IA.
As they added, most of the recommendations concerning concrete results were repeated, while for certain areas such as the judiciary, public companies, public procurement, those recommendations were additionally specified.
"All the recommendations concerning the reform of public administration have been repeated, and the adoption of the Law on Free Access to Information, which we have been insisting on for a long time, is only one of them," the IA stated.
The NGO emphasized that, after the report on the fulfillment of the temporary benchmarks in these chapters, the process of developing the final benchmarks through the preparation and adoption of revised action plans for the fulfillment of the final benchmarks and the need for it to be inclusive is even more important.
"Unfortunately, the Government has shown a worrying trend of excluding the public from making important decisions, partly under the pretext of the need for accelerated accession to the EU," the IA stated.
They pointed out that the momentum in joining the EU cannot be a justification for this trend.
"Because the process of integration is precisely the heritage of improving the participation of citizens in the development of public policies," the announcement states.
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