Coalition 27, which consists of 20 non-governmental organizations dedicated to the protection of the environment, and which are gathered to monitor the negotiations within Chapter 27, demand that the Draft Law on Spatial Planning and Construction be withdrawn from the parliamentary procedure.
They explained that the request stems from non-compliance with the process of passing and adopting that systemic law, which seeks to centrally dispose of space, and therefore natural resources and protected areas, which are not legal acquis of the European Union (EU).
"It is unacceptable that, despite the well-argued criticism of the professional and lay public, today the fate of this law is being decided behind closed doors, which is being cosmetically fixed with amendments, and all for the purpose of obvious political trade, and at the same time outside of legal and parliamentary procedures," according to Coalition 27. .
They claim that it is not surprising that most of the participants in this process, including the working group formed for the purpose of drafting the law, do not have insight into the final version of the document, which changes on the fly, spontaneously or "to use the vocabulary of Minister Radulović himself, cowboy".
"Although the minister's statements often mentioned the transparency of the process of passing a new law on spatial planning and construction, as well as that most of the comments were respected, the reality is far different and more in line with the style of the statement "poor mother", they claim in the Coalition on the 27th.
They said that Radulović had previously mentioned that all comments on the draft law had been adopted.
"The question arises as to why the reasoned comment on the collision of this law with the Law on Nature Protection was ignored in the process of public hearings," asked the Coalition on the 27th.
As they explained, the Law deliberately omits the ecological network Natura 2000, which includes a large number of previously defined Emerald areas, otherwise very attractive locations for the construction of tourist complexes.
"Ignoring this network, according to the decision of the Ministry, it will be possible to build such complexes, without an acceptability assessment in all those locations, which appear to foreign investors to be diamonds in the rough", claim the Coalition on 27.
Unfortunately, as they state, it is not the first time that various "corrections" are made without the involvement of the wider professional and lay public.
Coalition 27 pointed to the example of the Spatial Plan of Montenegro, the content of which was drastically changed before its adoption without consultation. Then, as they claim, the area of the Ulcinj Saltworks was converted overnight into city construction land.
They reminded that the observation of the civil sector about the lack of transparency in the process of enacting laws in the field of the environment was also stated in the Shadow Report of the Coalition on 27
"With the current events surrounding the enactment of the disputed law, the relevant Ministry has strengthened our stated thesis that the civil sector with its futile comments represents the decorum of public consultations, and that reasoned criticism is not noted, while only cosmetic corrections without essential significance are made", according to the Coalition 27 .
According to their opinion, if when asked who is the original creator of the law, the minister himself says that "it's certainly not Shakespeare", then it should not be a problem to withdraw him from the parliamentary procedure, so that the "serdars" can respond with wit.
"Given that Minister Radulović claims that future plans will be made by "the best experts in the world", we suggest that he apply the same principle in the process of drafting this law, with the fact that we would not mind if they are not the best in the world, but at least to be from the professional circles of Montenegro," stated the Coalition 27.
They emphasized that the absence of agreement on the text of the law from the expert institutions of Montenegro represents a kind of precedent.
"We call on the representatives of the Parliament of Montenegro not to vote for the adoption of this law tomorrow, because the consequences of a different decision are far-reaching harmful both to the territory of Montenegro itself and to the overall development of society and deal a serious blow to the democratization of our country, which through the process of drafting and adopting this law, significantly backward", concluded the Coalition 27.
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