Municipality of Budva and the president Nikola Jovanovic They sent a request to the Government of Montenegro and the Prime Minister Milojko Spajić that the state drop the court proceedings demanding that the local government collect 29,5 million euros in state guarantees paid at the end of 2019 to the German company WTE, after it abandoned the controversial project to build a wastewater treatment plant in the Bečići settlement of Vještica.
Jovanović said this in an interview with "Vijesti".
If the state wins the case, Budva faces the threat of having its account frozen for almost 46 million euros, which is the current amount with interest and court costs. This would cause the collapse of the tourist metropolis.
The Government of Montenegro continued the court process to prove that the Municipality of Budva is obliged to return 29,5 million euros, which it paid to the German-Austrian concern WTE/EVN in late December 2019 as a state guarantee, which then packed its bags and abandoned the plant in January 2020, leaving it in a disastrous state.
"The last item in resolving the relationship with the German company WTE remained the famous state guarantee, which was paid in the amount of 29,5 million euros. For me, it is very indicative, as I have repeated several times, why the government of the then Prime Minister made this decision Duško Marković that a German company be paid a state guarantee, governments followed and inherited the same principle Zdravka Krivokapića, then Dritan Abazović and here is Mr. Milojko Spajić. They insist that the Municipality of Budva pay the guarantees that were issued illegally, despite the decision of the Parliament of Montenegro, despite the agreement with the Municipality of Budva and the complete procedure as prescribed by law. It is very indicative to me why they insist on this and we, as a local administration, have repeatedly appealed why the procedure should not be abandoned. Very little is needed for something like this, namely political will, a vote on the decision at a Government session, the withdrawal of that lawsuit and there will no longer be any fear that the budget of the Municipality of Budva will be damaged not by those 29 million euros, but by more than 40 million euros, the amount of interest, court costs and all the accompanying things", stressed Jovanović.
According to him, an official request has been sent to Prime Minister Spajić to drop the proceedings.
"We have prepared a material with our legal team, with which we proposed that it be considered under urgent procedure at one of the Government sessions and a decision made to abandon such a lawsuit and to enable the Municipality to remedy the harmful consequences that have been pressing the local government budget for a decade. I think that this is a common sense decision, responsible both to the citizens of Budva and to what were the irregularities in the actions of previous governments. For me, this is not logical when you had a violation of the procedure, when you had an announcement that this procedure would be investigated in detail, those responsible would probably be prosecuted... We got everything the opposite. No one was held accountable for it, no proceedings were initiated against those who made such decisions against the interests of the state and the municipality, but instead they insist that the citizens of Budva pay for someone else's mistakes. As the Mayor of the Municipality, I do not understand this and cannot accept it. Once again, I am making a public appeal to the Prime Minister, to all political actors who make up this Government, to finally stop such a claim against the Municipality of Budva. If this happens in the next few years, nothing of capital construction will be possible in this municipality investment, the Municipality's account will be blocked, probably for a period longer than a year, the Municipality will have to borrow in the long term in order to be able to service current obligations, and by that I mean elementary things - employee salaries, the functioning of companies, social benefits, benefits for newborns, scholarships and everything that local government exists for, which is to be a service to citizens," said Jovanović.
The stage of the dispute between the state and the Municipality of Budva was recently explained to "Monitor" by the institution of the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro.
"The proceedings before the Basic Court in Kotor following the state's lawsuit for recourse collection on behalf of the payment based on the State Guarantee of 16 March 2010 are ongoing. The proceedings before the court have been ongoing since 2021, and the first court decision was issued on 29 June 2023, which adopted the state's claim and obliged the Municipality of Budva to reimburse the state for the amount paid under the guarantee, with statutory default interest from the date of payment, i.e. 19 December 2019," the protector of property and legal interests of Montenegro explained to "Monitor". Bojana Cirovic.
She stated that the Municipality of Budva appealed this judgment, arguing that the municipality's arbitration proceedings with WTE were ongoing, which, in the opinion of the municipality's attorney, was the reason for the suspension of the proceedings before the court in Kotor. For the reasons stated, the Higher Court in Podgorica annulled the first-instance judgment on 1 February 2024 and returned the proceedings for re-determination.
At the beginning of October last year, at a session of the Budva Municipal Assembly, scheduled under emergency procedure, councilors of the ruling majority from the ranks of "Budva Our City", the Democratic Party of Socialists and the European Union supported President Jovanović's proposal for a settlement in the arbitration proceedings conducted between the Municipality and the German company WTE.
The Municipality of Budva has paid 3,5 million euros to companies from the German group WTE from Essen, thus, as they said, closing disputes before international and domestic courts that threaten to devastate the city's coffers in the name of building a wastewater treatment plant in Bečići, as well as a desalination plant on Cape Zavala.
The settlement agreement on mutual rights and obligations was concluded before a notary between the Municipality of Budva and "Vodovod i kanalizacija" Budva on the one hand and WTE Wassertechnik GMBH, Otpadne vode Budva DOO, WTE desalinizacija sea water DOO and Beteiligung 52 asset solutions GMBH on the other.
"The settlement agreement stipulates that the Municipality of Budva will make a payment in the total amount of 3.500.000 euros, in four equal installments of 875.000 euros each, the first by November 30, 2025, the second by December 30, 2025, the third by February 15, 2026, and the fourth by March 15, 2026," the decision, which received the green light from the local parliament, said.
The signing of the agreement, as it is emphasized, ensures the timely fulfillment of obligations of particular importance, related to the smooth functioning of the municipal infrastructure and the provision of public services to the citizens of Budva, which is of key importance for preserving the public interest.
The settlement agreement was assessed by the opposition as a criminal act by the new government, which is thus abolishing the organized criminal group of the fugitive former high-ranking DPS official. Svetozar Marović which damaged the city budget by several million euros.
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