In the Parliament of Montenegro, the implementation of the educational program "Simulation of Parliament's work" began today, in which 41 high school students participate.
The program is organized by the Assembly for the first time with the support of the UNICEF representative office in Montenegro.
Addressing the high school students, the Secretary General of the Parliament of Montenegro, Aleksandar Klarić, expressed his satisfaction with their presence in the parliamentary benches and expressed his belief that the satisfaction will be greater when he hears the way in which they debate, exchange arguments and advocate for changes.
"Several times I had the opportunity to attend your workshops, to get to know you, to exchange opinions and to confirm what I always knew, which is that Montenegro really has a promising future, and I am completely convinced of that. The way you talked, the respect you showed each other, the competitive spirit you showed, but which never threatened the spirit of your friendship, is perhaps the best proof of what we can achieve together, and we can do a lot," said Klarić.
According to him, the Assembly is proud of the last two projects - the Simulation of the Parliament's work by high school students and the Citizens' Assembly, where, as he said, the Assembly of Montenegro was elected for the first time as a parliament from a non-EU country to implement such a project.
"With these projects, we enable the voice of the citizens, your voice, to be heard much more strongly, and for us all to contribute to the democratic processes in our country and to reach a common consensus on issues concerning the future of our country," said Klarić.
He added that "we can build our future exclusively by applying only one single instrument, by applying a dialogue that can never have an alternative".
"Let this today be the beginning of our successful partnership through which we together strengthen the Assembly, and therefore the future of our Montenegro", concluded Klarić in his address to high school students.
One of the participants of the simulation, Mitar Paunović, said that the main conclusion from this event is that young people must be more involved in decision-making processes and familiarize themselves with the essence of the legislative process.
Student Lana Lješković believes that simulation is the best possible way to see through practice how the parliamentary process takes place, which, as she said, they would not be able to understand through theory.
"Until this project, I didn't have enough information about how the Parliament works, and now it's not just a discussion on television, but has a much bigger meaning," she said.
Students of the "Slobodan Škerović" Gymnasium and the "Mirko Vešović" Secondary School of Economics from Podgorica participate in the pilot phase of the program, who during the two-day event will have the opportunity to simulate the work of the parliament through the work of working bodies and plenary sessions with the help of the Service of the Parliament of Montenegro.
"The two-day simulation was preceded by several months of thorough preparations with a special implementation of workshops where the participants of this program were introduced to the topics of democracy, the parliamentary system, the electoral system, dialogue and debate in the context of the parliament, with special reference to the legislative procedure in the Parliament of Montenegro. In addition to the organized tour building, the students had the opportunity to become more familiar with the work of the Parliament, its competences and functions, history, as well as the activities of working bodies and parliamentary clubs," the Assembly announced.
They pointed out that the program aims to familiarize high school students with the process of passing laws in all its phases, and that in this way the Parliament of Montenegro continues to implement an open door policy for its citizens, especially the younger population.
"It is just a continuation of a series of activities that contribute in a very concrete way to a higher degree of transparency and openness of the work of the Parliament, and which led to the fact that the Parliament of Montenegro was declared the most transparent parliament in our region, including Croatia and Slovenia, as members of the EU". they said from the Assembly.
The first day of the simulation was marked by a simulation of the constitutive session and a simulation of the debate on the bill in the parent committee.
The educational program will continue tomorrow, with the address of the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Alekse Bečić, and the head of the UNICEF representative office in Montenegro, Juan Santander.
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