STEGA: Spajić to withdraw amendments to the Law regarding the change in the status of cemeteries

The informal civic association, gathered to draft the Strategy for a European and Civic Montenegro - STEGA, announced today that it is calling on the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Milojko Spajić, to withdraw the proposed amendments to the Law on State Property in the part that changes the status of cemeteries and their property and legal regime.

STEGA stated in a statement that on January 17th of this year, they sent an open letter to Spajić, requesting that the Montenegrin public be provided with answers regarding the amendments to the Law on State Property regarding the change in the status of cemeteries and their property and legal regime.

"Based on the fact that there has been no response from the Prime Minister to date, STEGA has informed the embassies of the Quinte countries in Podgorica (USA, Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany) of the issue in question, in a letter. In this regard, STEGA has informed the said embassies of the planned amendment to the Law on State Property and that it is intended to circumvent the application of Article 58, paragraph 3 of the Constitution of Montenegro, which refers to the property regime of 'natural resources and goods in general use' for cemeteries. Also, STEGA will soon inform the embassies of other European Union (EU) member states, as well as other relevant international organizations, of the legal and other consequences that such hasty and without any legal analysis, amendments to the Law may produce," STEGA's statement states.

The civic association states that according to Article 16, paragraph 1, line 6 of the current Law on State Property, "cemeteries are local assets in general use at the disposal of municipalities."

"This means that all cemeteries in Montenegro are exclusively state-owned, so according to the Constitution of Montenegro, it is not possible for them to be objects of private property. This implies that they cannot be owned by religious communities or other private legal entities, unless illegal entries have been made through criminal and illegal actions," the statement reads.

STEGA said that by accepting the amendments of the New Serbian Democracy (NSD), the Government, in an extremely non-transparent manner and without any public debate on this very sensitive and complex issue, envisaged a change in the legal status of cemeteries in such a way that cemeteries, as "local assets in general use" that are exclusively state property, would be treated as "other local assets of general interest", which, as STEGA said, creates the basis for changing the property and legal regime of cemeteries, as established in Article 58, paragraph 3 of the Constitution of Montenegro and Article 16, paragraph 1, indent 6 of the Law on State Property.

"STEGA once again calls on the Prime Minister to withdraw the proposed changes from the procedure, to organize a public debate that would include the academic community and NGOs, and in this way to show that there is no 'hidden and bad intention' behind the proposed changes and that he understands the gravity of the consequences that changes to the ownership rights over cemeteries would have," STEGA said in a statement.