Will Djukovic defend the country in Strasbourg?

The new protector of Montenegro before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg should most likely be a lawyer. Mirko Đuković, "Vijesti" learns.

Djukovic, after conducting a competitive examination, "passed" the Government Personnel Commission on Tuesday. According to unofficial information from the editorial office, the executive branch is expected to decide on the selection of the representative and his deputy today.

She applied for deputy representative. Ana Srdanovic.

Đuković specializes in European law, human rights and the rule of law. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Hertie School's Center for Fundamental Rights.

His biography published on the Hertie School website states that he graduated in law from the University of Montenegro, and received a master's degree in European integration law from the University of Belgrade and international economic and business law from Kyushu University (Japan).

He has taught at universities in Montenegro, Hungary, Austria and China. He was a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public and International Law in Heidelberg and held research positions at Kyushu University, where he studied regulatory approaches to new technologies.

He has also been a consultant on various projects of the EU Delegation to Montenegro, the Council of Europe, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Development Programme.

The Government, or rather its General Secretariat, announced a call for applications for candidates for the position of representative and deputy representative of Montenegro before the Court in Strasbourg on September 2nd.

The General Secretariat did not respond to questions sent by Vijesti last Friday - who applied for the advertisement, whether the candidates were interviewed, and when the decision on the election of the representative and deputy representative of Montenegro before the European Court of Human Rights will be made.

The public call was announced in accordance with the amendments to the Law on Representatives, adopted by the Parliament on 12 March, which stipulate that the election of the Representative and his/her deputy shall be carried out within six months of the entry into force of the amendments. The law stipulates that the Representative and his/her deputy shall be appointed and dismissed by the Government, based on a public call, at the proposal of the Secretary General of the Government. Previously, the Representative and his/her deputy were proposed by the Minister of Justice.

The advertisement specifies that the representative and his/her deputy may be a person who, in addition to the general requirements for work in state administration bodies, has graduated from law school, passed the bar exam and has confirmed active knowledge of English or French.

It is also stated that the representative and his/her deputy may be a person with the academic title of full professor, associate professor or assistant professor in positive law subjects, who has not passed the bar exam, or with the title of Doctor of Science and at least ten years of work experience...

In February last year, the government dismissed Valentina Pavličić from the position of representative, and appointed to that position Katarina Pekovic, at the proposal of the then Minister of Justice Andrej Milović. Previously, at the end of December 2023, the executive branch adopted amendments to the Regulation on the Representative and limited his mandate to a maximum of two four-year terms. Thus, Pavličić, who was elected to that position in September 2015, ended her mandate on the day the new representative was elected.

The Constitutional Court repealed the amendments to the Decree at the end of June last year, assessing that by its legal nature, as an act for the enforcement of the law and, in this case, the Constitution, it must be in accordance with the highest legal act, and that it cannot “go against” the Constitution. A few days earlier, the Administrative Court had determined that the Government had unlawfully dismissed Pavličić from office.

Pavličić was elected President of the Supreme Court at the end of November last year.

During the debate in the Parliament on the Law on Representatives in March, the head of the parliamentary group of the ruling Europe Now Movement (PES) Vasilije Carapić He said that, since Montenegro became a member of the Council of Europe, the state representative before Strasbourg has been elected based on a regulation, which turned out to be a "legally imperfect situation, since the regulation was adopted based on another regulation."

"The practice of the Constitutional Court has shown that this is unconstitutional. A decree cannot be passed based on a decree," said Čarapić.

He recalled that by repealing the amended Regulation, the Constitutional Court confirmed that every regulation before it was "equally unconstitutional".

"After we noticed this, we submitted the Bill on the Representative to the parliamentary procedure, because we believe that this matter should be regulated by law, so that we have a clear situation, and not a state that can be disputed at any time," Čarapić said at the time.

In the first half of the year, citizens filed 30 new lawsuits against the state

According to the semi-annual report of the Office of the Representative before the Court in Strasbourg, which was adopted by the Government in September, Montenegro paid around 43,6 thousand euros in the first six months of this year under the decisions of the European Court. During that period, Montenegrin citizens filed 30 new lawsuits against the state.

In the first six months, the Strasbourg court issued one verdict and ten decisions against Montenegro, according to which the state paid 43,6 thousand euros in compensation. The largest amount, around 38 thousand euros, was paid for violations of citizens' rights due to the excessive length of proceedings before the Constitutional Court, the report states.

Last year, the state had to pay out 6,4 million euros, almost all of which related to the execution of judgments rendered in favor of 605 former workers of the "Radoje Dakić" factory.

The Office of the Ombudsman told Television Vijesti last month that, according to the European Court's annual report for 2024, Montenegro ranked fourth among the member states of the Council of Europe in terms of the number of applications submitted to that court in relation to the number of inhabitants.

Although the excessive duration of proceedings before the Constitutional Court remains the main reason for initiating disputes in Strasbourg, the Office of the Ombudsman said that their duration has been significantly shortened compared to the period before 2024.

"In 2024 and 2025, the average length of proceedings before the Constitutional Court is a year and 8 months. As a petition to the European Court can only be submitted after the Constitutional Court has issued a decision, the increase in the number of resolved cases on constitutional appeals before the Constitutional Court has also influenced the increased number of petitions submitted to the European Court," the Office said.