Amendments to the Law on the Election of the President, improving results in the fight against high-level corruption and starting to collect biometric data in accordance with the requirements of future membership in the Schengen zone - are some of the key obligations that Montenegro, in accordance with the Reform Agenda, needs to implement this year in order to receive money from the European Union (EU) Growth Plan for the Western Balkans.
Among the obligations that Montenegro needs to implement is the change of the Constitution - so that the Minister of Justice would no longer be a member of the Judicial Council - which should have been done in the previous year.
According to the Reform Agenda, the state should begin work on collecting biometric data (fingerprints, facial recognition, iris scans, etc.) by December, which is the responsibility of the Ministries of Foreign and Interior Affairs.
The deadline for amendments to the Law on the Election of the President is June, but the document does not specify what the changes relate to.
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) final report on the 2023 presidential elections states that the electoral law and the Law on Presidential Elections still lack sufficient provisions on almost all aspects of the second round of voting, including the composition and operation of election commissions, voter registration, accreditation of observers... “thus undermining legal certainty in the second round.” Therefore, the ODIHR recommends that, in order to ensure legal certainty and integrity of the process, the law should be amended to regulate all aspects of the second round of elections.
The reform agenda also envisages improving results in the areas of investigations, prosecutions, final judgments, confiscation and final confiscation in corruption, including high-level cases, by June this year and December next.
“Demonstrate an overall increase in the number of investigations, confirmed indictments and convictions, including high-level corruption cases; demonstrate an increase in the number and total value of seizures, freezing and confiscation of proceeds of crime; demonstrate an increase in independent financial investigations,” the document reads.
The implementation of reforms from the Reform Agenda for the period 2024-2027 is a condition for receiving money from the Reform and Growth Instrument under the EU Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. The plan is a combination of grants and soft loans for the region of six billion euros for the period 2024-2027. 383,5 million euros have been provided for Montenegro, of which 110 million euros are grants and 273,5 million euros are soft loans.
The European Commission allocated seven percent of the total amount at the beginning of the implementation of the Plan as pre-financing, and divided the rest into six semi-annual tranches of support, depending on the degree of implementation of the planned reforms.
Montenegro received the first regular tranche from the Plan in August last year, in the amount of 10,2 million euros, not the 18 million the Government expected, because half of the necessary reform steps had not been fully implemented.
The second tranche, of 8,1 million euros, was approved on October 17 last year. Montenegro received pre-financing, of 26,85 million euros, on May 15, 2025.
MORE THAN HALF OF THE MEASURES FULFILLED
The Ministry of European Affairs (MEP) recently announced that more than half of the measures envisaged by the Reform Agenda have been implemented and that they expect that Montenegro will be granted another 55 million euros from the Plan for the achieved results.
The third semi-annual report on the implementation of the Reform Agenda, which the Government adopted last week, stated that out of 45 reform steps that need to be implemented, 24 have been fully implemented, while 21 have been assessed as partially implemented.
The report states that of the 32 reform steps whose deadline for completion was December 31, 2025, "based on the self-assessment of the competent institutions", as of the preparation of the report, 17 have been fully completed, and the remaining 15 steps have been partially completed.
Among the partially completed steps are, in addition to amendments to the Constitution, the adoption of the Air Quality Management Strategy for the period 2024-2029, including the development/updating of air quality plans for zones where air quality limit values have been exceeded, a comprehensive review of the electoral legal framework, implementation of ODIHR recommendations (2023), action by competent authorities on alleged cases of abuse of detainees by police forces and on complaints from prisoners, linking and accessing databases of the Revenue and Customs Administration and other state authorities with which the Special Prosecutor's Office cooperates, recognition and definition of the status of active and inactive companies, new rules and criteria for the appointment and selection of members of the management/supervisory boards of state-owned companies...
Obligations remain to improve the legislative framework and focus on the informal economy, establish interoperability between systems and databases used in the current visa issuance system, adopt legislation in line with the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II), enable the functionality of the electronic cadastre, and adopt a new law on competition protection.
CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION IS A SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGE
The document emphasizes that a significant challenge remains the implementation of steps that require a change to the Constitution, which implies a broad political consensus, a two-thirds majority in the Assembly, and fundamental compliance with international standards.
"The reform directly affects the structure and functioning of the Judicial Council, which opens up space for political resistance, especially when it comes to removing the Minister of Justice from the Council," it was explained.
It is added that despite the positive assessments of the European and Venice Commissions on the steps taken so far, the full depoliticization of the judiciary and the strengthening of institutional independence require continued reform dialogue, technical precision, and a willingness to compromise among key stakeholders.
It is recalled that the Government adopted a Proposal for Amendments to the Constitution in April 2025, according to which the Minister of Justice will no longer be a member of the Judicial Council. The material was forwarded to the Parliament on May 30 last year in order to include this topic on the agenda of the session, but this has not yet happened.
Among the obligations from the Reform Agenda for this year are the construction of a prison in Mojkovac, special prison hospitals, an increase in the number of officers in the Special Police Department (SPO) - responsible for the areas of cigarette smuggling and money laundering, an increase in the number of criminal police officers engaged in the fight against drug smuggling, combating the smuggling of weapons and explosives, and human trafficking...
This year also includes improvements to the records of court monitoring and final court decisions in cases of discrimination, as well as an increased number of general practitioners at the Spuž Health Center.
This year's commitments include establishing an effective system for assessing, monitoring and reporting on the financial performance and fiscal risk of state-owned enterprises, which should establish an independent internal audit function. It is also envisaged that 100 percent of new board members of state-owned enterprises will be appointed in accordance with newly established rules/criteria, i.e. subject to an open, independent selection process based on merit.
Among the obligations is that the value of procurements published without publishing a contract notice (direct procurement with a value of under eight thousand euros) should be reduced to two percentage points of the total value of public procurement by December 2026.
Full availability of electronic registration for all types of business entities is also envisaged, as well as electronic payment of state and local fees, charges, duties and taxes.
The reform agenda also calls for addressing the issue of small and medium-sized debts and unblocking the accounts of small and medium-sized enterprises (e.g., canceling small debts with a maturity of over 24 months, reducing medium-sized debts), then increasing the number of tax and labor inspectors and tax inspections by 50 percent compared to the average in the period from 2020 to 2023, and increasing the total amount of fines imposed by 100 percent compared to the period from 2020 to 2023.
The implementation of a “digital identity wallet” is also envisaged, which at a minimum includes: the new EU Regulation on Digital Identity, the signing and implementation of the Agreement on Mutual Recognition of Trust Services with other Western Balkan countries, joining the EU list of trusted third countries for e-signature validation, and participation in the “Balkan Digital Identity Wallet”.
Among the reform steps that have been fully implemented are the transfer of all data from the existing land cadastre database to the electronic cadastre, an increase in the annual renovation rate of buildings and street lighting in line with the targets agreed in the Energy Community (to renovate at least 60.000 square meters), the introduction of a part of public e-services based on the plan, a new model for career management and counseling adopted within the framework of the Career Management and Counseling Strategy 2025-2030, a reduction in the number of complaints to the Ombudsman and a reduction in the number of incidents reported by LGBTIQ civil society organizations, the abolition of visa-free agreements with countries (at least one country per year) for which the EU requires a visa...
Corruption is one of the key issues of the accession process
Minister of European Affairs Maida Gorčević said yesterday that the fight against corruption is not a technical issue, but one of the key political issues in Montenegro's EU accession process, and that it is not limited to negotiation chapters 23 and 24, which relate to the rule of law.
"It is a horizontal issue that concerns all negotiation chapters and all sectoral policies. Our task is to identify specific corruption risks in each area, to clearly map them and to demonstrate that we have the capacity and willingness to prevent them systematically," said Gorčević at the conference "Fighting Corruption on the Path to the EU: From Rhetoric to Concrete Results", organized by the Ministry of European Affairs and the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK).
Minister of Justice Bojan Božović said that Montenegro has a long road ahead of it, which includes "continuing to strengthen the normative framework."
"That we must complete the story related to the Law on the Prevention of Corruption. That we must finish the story with the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers," said Božović.
He added that we must continue with those sources of law that relate to amendments to the Law on the Confiscation of Proceeds from Crime and amendments to the Criminal Code, as well as the introduction of a new section - illicit enrichment in connection with public office.
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