IA: Montenegro first in the region in policy development and coordination, but far from a good result

Based on a regional survey that monitors public administration reform in six Western Balkan countries, Montenegro ranked first in the area of ​​"Policy Development and Coordination", with 41 out of a possible 100 points. This result shows that Montenegro is ranked better than the countries of the region, but it only meets the basics of transparent decision-making, and that significant improvements are needed in the transparency of the Government's work, planning of public policies and involving citizens in their development.

This was announced by the Institute Alternative (IA).

As they state, monitoring the transparency of decision-making during Government sessions has shown worrying data.

"In the period from November 2025 to January 2026, the Government of Montenegro held 32 sessions, of which 22 were telephone sessions, or 69 percent. The Government regularly publishes the agendas of its sessions, but most often this is only an hour or two hours before the sessions are held, which prevents timely insight into the work of the Government. Materials from the sessions are regularly published, but only 17 percent of the materials were published within seven days of the sessions," they announced.

As they add, it is particularly concerning that, when agenda items are marked with a degree of secrecy, citizens have no information about what the agenda item is and what the subject of discussion is.

"There is no legal obligation to publish minutes of Government sessions, but this is a novelty in the Draft Law on the Government, which is currently in the parliamentary procedure. Montenegro achieved the highest number of points thanks to the fact that, unlike the countries in the region, it regularly published annual work programs for 2024, 2025 and 2026, as well as the Medium-Term Work Program of the Government 2024-2027. The Government also regularly published the Programme for the Accession of Montenegro to the European Union (PPCG) during the observed period. The Government regularly publishes reports on the implementation of the annual work program, as well as reports on the implementation of the PPCG. The research indicates that the aforementioned reports are available only in PDF format, and that the Report on the Implementation of the PPCG for 2026 is available in scanned PDF format, without the ability to search the document," they explain.

The IA points out that no dataset from the Ministry of European Affairs, which is responsible for reporting on the implementation of the EU Accession Program, has been published on the Open Data Portal, nor any dataset related to the implementation of the Government's work program.

"The research also showed a low percentage of public involvement in the early stages of drafting laws and strategic documents. For the period from November 2024 to November 2025, early public consultations were conducted for only four percent of strategic documents (3/72) and five percent of laws (7/155). When it comes to public consultations, including public hearings, monitoring showed that out of the 227 strategic documents and laws we had, public hearings were conducted for 30.56 percent of strategic documents and 40.65 percent of adopted laws. Although this is the observed period from November 2024 to November 2025, the Institute Alternative conducts regular monitoring of legislative activity, which shows that this is a continuous trend. In the 28th convocation for laws submitted by the Government, public hearings were held for only 47 percent of laws," they point out.

According to them, what is additionally worrying is that calls for public debate on the e-Government portal were published for only 24 percent of these cases, while no comments were submitted through the Portal, although the Portal itself offers the possibility for the user to leave a comment. Even when the competent ministries publish calls for public debate, we can see that they do not invite comments to be submitted through this Portal when it comes to public debates, because the calls state that comments and suggestions are submitted by email or post, while the e-Government portal is not mentioned," they said.

The monitoring also included monitoring the regulatory impact analysis, or RIA form. When it comes to laws where the Government is the proposer, RIA is carried out in 93 percent of cases, which, they point out, is a good result, but in none of the cases "is there an impact on gender equality, which is currently not a legal obligation in Montenegro."

"For strategic documents, RIA is conducted in 44 percent of cases. The government has meanwhile adopted a new Guide for the Implementation of RIA, which regulates this area in more detail. Public opinion surveys, previously conducted as part of the project, showed a negative perception; when asked whether they have the opportunity to participate in the development of laws and strategies, as many as 69 percent of citizens responded that they believe they do not have the opportunity," they state.