MPA: Montenegro receives a modern Law on Government, in line with EU standards

Montenegro is receiving a modern Law on Government, in line with European Union (EU) standards, the Ministry of Public Administration (MPA) announced, adding that they expect that this legal act will be adopted in the short term.

That government department said that they have been working dedicatedly for a long time on preparing the highest quality text of the Law on Government.

The MPA reminded that the working body for the preparation of the Proposal for the Law on the Government prepared a Draft Law, which the Government reviewed in July 2022, and which has been under public debate since September 21 of that year.

The text of the Law, as they said, was improved by comments received from the public hearing, as well as comments from competent authorities during additional interdepartmental consultations, as well as comments from SIGMA.

"The Draft Law was subsequently submitted to the European Commission (EC) and then to the Venice Commission (VC), which, at its plenary session in October 2023, adopted an opinion on the Draft Law, with a positive assessment and certain suggestions and recommendations for further improvement," the statement said.

The MPA said that in December 2023 they organized a roundtable entitled "Law on Government - Open Issues".

"Following the comments received from the roundtable, the Draft Law was improved, as previously after the suggestions of the High Council. In cooperation with the Council of Europe Office in Montenegro, the text of the law was aligned with GRECO recommendations," the statement said.

It is stated that, after all these activities, the text of the law was again harmonized with the competent authorities, and then submitted to the EC.

"Given the doubts that have arisen regarding the lack of provisions regulating the work of the Government after the termination of its mandate, or rather its technical mandate, we emphasize that the MPA proposed these solutions together with the working group, and confirmed this position by submitting the legal text with this provision to the Government of the Republic of Serbia," the statement says.

However, as stated by the MPA, in the final phase of harmonizing the law with the competent authorities, the provision regarding the technical mandate was deleted, because they were continuously told that this issue could not be regulated by law and that such a legal solution was not in accordance with the Constitution.

They said that the Draft Law on the Government stipulates that the Government can have a maximum of 18 ministers for administrative areas, with the proviso that administrative areas that cannot be merged with other administrative areas are recognized.

"However, in addition to the seven recognized administrative areas, the Government, in accordance with the directions of Montenegro's development and the exposition of the Prime Minister-designate for the composition of the Government, may have 11 more administrative areas in accordance with its policies," the statement said.

The MPA said that the maximum number of departments in the Government has been increased from 15 to 18 in accordance with the opinion of the Supreme Court.

"The transitional and final provisions stipulate that the provisions of the law relating to the composition of the Government will apply on the day following the announcement of the final results of the first subsequent parliamentary elections," the Ministry stated.

Such a legal solution, they said, is in line with the opinion of the Supreme Court and the constitutional principle of prohibiting retroactive effect of laws.

"Regarding the definition of an "emergency" in which a telephone session of the Government, but also of any other collegial body, can be held, we are of the opinion that such an approach could cause problems in practice," the statement said.

The MPA said that there is no way for any law to foresee all emergencies, especially at a time when the world and technology are facing accelerated development and transformation.

"The MPA expects that the Law on the Government will be adopted in the short term, but also emphasizes that it is not realistic to expect, and it is also not possible from the aspect of legal theory and practice, to foresee and solve all problems in a specific area with one regulation," the statement says.