URA in the game for judges in exchange for laws: What happens after the failed election of three candidates for the Constitutional Court

The ruling majority expects to secure the election of two Constitutional Court judges in the second round, relying on the possible votes of the Civic Movement URA, "Vijesti" has learned. Although an agreement has not yet been reached, even an unsuccessful outcome of the vote would not lead to a complete blockade of the Court, as the law allows judges whose mandates have expired to remain in office until new ones are elected if the parliament so decides.

"Vijesti" sources said that there were talks between the Europe Now Movement (PES) and the URA GP ahead of the parliamentary debate. One source said that an agreement could be reached if the parliament passes some of the laws proposed by the URA.

The Constitutional Court currently has four out of the seven judges that the institution should have. The Constitutional Committee is advertising for the election of two judges (successors Milorad Gogić i Dragan Đuranović) announced on December 23rd last year and heard all the candidates in mid-March, but proposed them to the Parliament last week. President Jakov Milatovic proposed one candidate, and in the meantime he published a new advertisement for the election of another judge, because the judge Desanka Lopičić His term expires at the end of the year.

None of the proposed candidates received the required two-thirds majority in parliament the day before last, and sources for "Vijesti" claim that there is minimal chance that the majority will vote for Milatović's candidate in the second round.

According to Article 15 of the Constitution, when a judge of the Constitutional Court ceases to hold office due to the expiration of his/her term of office, and the proposer does not propose or the Assembly does not elect another, the Parliament shall simultaneously adopt a decision on the termination of the office of the judge whose term of office has expired and a decision that he/she shall continue to hold that office until a new one is elected, “but not for longer than one year.”

This means that the Constitutional Court, in the event of an unsuccessful second round of voting in the Parliament, can remain with four judges and the constitutional crisis that lasted in Montenegro from mid-2022 to the end of February 2023 will not be repeated. At that time, the Constitutional Court was blocked because it was left with three judges. The EU repeatedly appealed to political entities in Montenegro to unblock the Constitutional Court, and the Slovenian Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon She warned at the time of the possibility of stopping accession negotiations with Montenegro.

The election of judges to the Constitutional Court is of crucial importance for the EU accession process, as it concerns the functioning of the rule of law, which is the core of European integration. Montenegro's goal, as the government has repeatedly stated, is to close all negotiation chapters with the EU (including 23 and 24 concerning the rule of law) by the end of 2026, so that the country can become a new EU member state in 2028.

According to the Constitution, a two-thirds majority in the Assembly, or 54 votes, is required for the election of judges of the Constitutional Court, and if this is not achieved, a second round is held in which the election requires the support of three-fifths of the deputies (49). Given that the candidates of the Constitutional Committee and Milatović did not receive the required majority in the first round, the second round will be held in a month at the earliest.

MPs voted for candidates for the Constitutional Committee - Deputy Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms Mirjana Radović and a judge of the Higher Court in Podgorica Jovan Jovanovic, as well as for the lawyer Mirjana Vučinić, proposed by Milatović.

16 opposition MPs (Democratic Party of Socialists and Social Democrats) and independent MPs voted for Vučinić's election. Jevrosima Pejović i Radinka Ćinćur, while 44 government representatives abstained. Jovanović's election was supported by 45 majority MPs, while 1 was against. Admir Adrović from the Bosniak Party (BS), while five of his party colleagues abstained. 44 majority MPs voted for Radović, one was against (Adrović), and five abstained (BS). The BS demanded that one of the candidates be a member of the Bosniak people.

They don't shy away from consultations.

The MPs of the URA GP did not participate in the vote for judges.

On Tuesday evening, after the Assembly failed to elect judges, the party announced that the parliamentary majority had once again shown that it was not formed for the European path, as they often say, but solely for office and party privileges.

"With such actions, the majority directly endanger Montenegro's European path," said the URA Border Guard.

They said they would not shy away from consultations and talks based on principles, "for a real step forward on the European path, like when the IBAR laws and electoral reforms were voted on"...

The URA voted in December 2023 to elect a judge to the Constitutional Court Faruk Resulbegović, in the second round. Resulbegović did not receive the required majority in the first round in February 2023 (46 MPs voted for him), when female judges were elected Snezana Armenko, Momirka Tešić i Dragana Đuranović, whose position ended last December due to reaching retirement age.

The election of Resulbegović was opposed by the Bosniak Party, which then, as now, demanded that a Bosniak be included in the Constitutional Court.

“The full composition of the Constitutional Court guarantees that decisions will always be made”

During a debate in the Parliament on Tuesday, Milatović and the opposition warned of a possible blockade of the Constitutional Court and a constitutional crisis in the country, like a few years ago.

The Constitutional Court told Vijesti that the full composition of the Constitutional Court is a guarantee that decisions will always be made in all complex cases.

When asked if they were concerned about the failure to elect new judges in the Assembly, in terms of additional backlog of cases, they replied that the Constitutional Court cannot comment on current election procedures.

"We emphasize that at this moment the Constitutional Court is not dysfunctional, as is often heard in public, but it is incomplete. Despite this, the engagement of judges and constitutional court advisors has achieved results that indicate a high level of efficiency. Since the beginning of the year, the Constitutional Court has received 943 cases, and in the same period it has completed 1.121 cases," the Constitutional Court said.

Executive Director of Human Rights Action (HRA) Tea Gorjanc Prelevic She told Vijesti on Tuesday that if a majority is not needed to elect judges in a month, the competitions will be repeated and the next deadline for their election is, for example, March of next year.

"Citizens will continue to suffer, the state is on shaky legs, opponents of Montenegro's EU membership are getting another excellent argument in favor of the fact that this is a frivolous state that is incapable of choosing its own institutions," she warned.

The procedure for electing two judges to the Constitutional Committee was suspended in March after hearing the candidates, pending the opinion of the Venice Commission on the case of former Constitutional Court judge Dragana Đuranović.

At the end of last year, the parliament, based on the conclusion of the Constitutional Committee, declared her to have ceased to hold office because she had attained the retirement requirement under the Pension and Disability Insurance Act, and not the Labour Act, under which Constitutional Court judges retired. In protest, the opposition had left parliament and blocked the work of the Electoral Legislation Reform Committee. After part of the opposition signed an agreement on resolving the political crisis with Prime Minister Milojko Spajić (Europe Now Movement) on 15 March, the opposition returned to the parliamentary benches, and a request was sent to the Venice Commission for an opinion on the disputed case.

The Commission stated that the Parliament should have followed the procedure requiring formal notification of the Constitutional Court on the fulfilment of the conditions for the termination of judicial office, emphasizing that it is not within their jurisdiction to interpret national constitutional norms and disputed provisions of domestic legislation, nor the constitutionality of specific actions taken by the Parliament and the Constitutional Court.

The Constitutional Court currently has 2.180 cases pending.

The Constitutional Court told Vijesti that they currently have 2.180 cases pending.

Of that number, they say, 1.820 are constitutional complaints, and they date from 2025, 2024, and 2023, while the most were received during this year, 753 of them.

"The oldest cases are in the field of normative control, the assessment of the constitutionality of laws and general acts, and date back to 2018 (six cases of the assessment of the constitutionality of laws and one case of the assessment of the constitutionality and legality of another general act)," they stated.