The practice of avoiding control hearings initiated by the opposition is not good and can only lead to additional erosion of public trust in the work of the Assembly and weaken its control role, the interlocutors of "Vijesti" assessed.
In 2020, the representatives of the parties that make up the parliamentary majority amended the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly in order to enable the right of one-third of the deputies to a control hearing by minority initiative twice, instead of once during the session, but in practice they do not fully comply with this.
The last example of non-respect of the Rules of Procedure in that part happened the previous week, when the representatives of the authorities did not come to the session of the Committee for European Integration, so that working body did not have a quorum to decide on the request for a control hearing of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Filip Ivanovic and Minister of European Affairs Maida Gorcevic because of MP Maja Vukićević's vote against Kosovo's admission to the Council of Europe, the Russian ambassador's statement about "confrontation" with Russia if Montenegro joins the EU, and Bosnia and Herzegovina's protest note due to Dodik's visit to the head of the parliament Andrija Mandić.
The request to hear Ivanović and Gorčević on the topic of "Deviation of representatives of the authorities from the official foreign policy of Montenegro and the consequences this has on the EU integration process" was submitted by five members of the committee from the opposition.
Coordinator of the Democratization and Europeanization program at the Center for Civic Education (CGO) Mira Popović Trstenjak told "Vijesti" that one of the three control mechanisms that the Parliament has at its disposal are precisely the control hearings and that the position of the Parliament is collapsing when these mechanisms are not used:
"And we see that the practice of this convocation of the Parliament of Montenegro indicates the obvious intention of the parliamentary majority to 'protect' the Government by avoiding these hearings".
She assessed that this follows on from the previous warning assessments about the limited control function of the Assembly, including the Report of the European Commission (EC) on Montenegro for the year 2023.
Popović Trstenjak reminded that the EC also indicated the absence of a uniform practice in conducting parliamentary hearings or considering reports and draft laws.
"This practice is not good and can only lead to additional erosion of public trust in the work of the Assembly, which itself agrees to be weaker than it should be. "Also, the executive power should not run away from the control of its work, nor should such kind of "protection" of the Government be in the interest of the members of the ruling coalition if they are really committed to the public interest," she said.
At the beginning of March, the Committee for Economy, Finance and Budget did not vote on whether to hold a control hearing of the Prime Minister Milojko Spajić and the Minister of Finance News of Vuković, on the topic "Acquaintance with the documents on the ways of implementing the announced economic reforms through the Europe Now 2.0 program", because the members of the parliamentary majority refused to recognize the opposition's right to hold two control hearings during the spring session, which is foreseen by the rules of procedure. The reasoning of the government representatives was that the prime minister and ministers cannot answer questions related to a program that does not exist because "Europe Now 2" has not been published, and that it is disputed whether the opposition's proposal is voted on or just accepted. That there is no hearing was definitely confirmed by the collegium of the Assembly.
"The Decree on the Government of Montenegro clearly sets the basis for all members of the Government that they are obliged to respond to the call for a control hearing, but if the committees continue to refuse to initiate such initiatives or even when they are adopted, they behave inferiorly in relation to the Government and do not schedule the dates of those hearings in an unacceptably long time frame, then all MPs are humiliated and the responsibility, as in everything, is borne by the one who has more power. In this case, it's the leaders of those committees and members of the ruling coalition," said Popović Trstenjak.
Head of the club of representatives of the Democrats Boris Bogdanovic said that it is It is true that the provisions of Article 75 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Montenegro prescribe that the committee twice during the regular session of the Parliament, at the request of one third of the members, makes a decision on the control hearing, but that this provision does not apply only to the parliamentary opposition:
"Already one-third of the MPs, who can be from both the parliamentary majority and the parliamentary opposition, or the request of one-third of the MPs can be signed by both the government and the opposition MPs, which often happened", said Bogdanović.
He said that if the parliamentary opposition claims that this provision applies only to them, "which is really not the case, and in that case each of the committees has time to hold not only two but many more control hearings during the regular session." .
Bogdanović emphasized that every request for a control hearing must be orderly and aimed at the exercise of the Parliament's control function over the Government's activities, and not over the activities of the parliamentary majority that elected the Government, as was the case when submitting one of the opposition's requests for a control hearing of the Minister of European Affairs integration due to the decision of the MP Maje Vukićević.
"I really don't think that the control role of the parliament is weakening, but I think that it is much stronger now compared to the period of the thirty-year rule of the previous regime," said Bogdanović.
MP of the opposition Social Democrats (SD) Boris Mugoša said that the parliamentary majority's insistence on limiting the defined rights of the opposition to the control hearing essentially renders the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly and its control role meaningless.
He reminded that the Rules of Procedure stipulate that at the initiative of five members of the opposition for a control hearing, there is an obligation to make a decision on that control hearing.
He pointed out that the established practice guaranteed at least two control hearings during the regular session of the Assembly, and that now the intention is to stop it.
Mugoša said that the control role of the parliament is extremely important in terms of the European path of Montenegro, because it occupies an important place in evaluating the progress of our country.
"The role of the parliament, by blocking the control mechanism of the opposition, has been seriously degraded," Mugoša told "Vijesta".
Former deputy and vice-president of the Assembly in the previous convocation, Branka Bošnjak, she told the News that the parliamentary majority in this convocation of the Assembly, "unfortunately, is doing what they once fought together to prevent from happening - and that is weakening the control role of the Assembly".
"Instead of allowing and strengthening this institute, because I guess they have nothing to fear, they obstruct the control hearings and allow the disparagement of the Assembly, not only avoiding the control hearings, but also the institute of the Prime Minister's Hour and parliamentary questions".
The first appearance of Prime Minister Spajić in front of the MPs during the Prime Minister's Hour, in December last year, is associated with numerous vicissitudes. As "Vijesti" reported at the time, he informed the President of the Assembly Andrija Mandić by telephone that he would not appear at the prime minister's hour, scheduled for a day later in the Parliament, about which Mandić informed the Collegium of the Presidents of the Assembly. After the collegium session, Spajić confirmed that he would still come to the session.
"That is disappointing, because then it is suspected that the Government is hiding something and is afraid of something, because if you are clean and do everything properly, then there is no avoiding it. In fact, on the contrary, it is to your advantage to show up and promote your work… but it seems that many have forgotten what they stood for and what they fought against. They don't want a review, they don't want reforms, but they promote the behavior of the deposed regime, with the fact that the former regime knew how to do it more sophisticatedly, and this one does it without pardon, brutally rendering the Parliament meaningless, which is a dangerous tendency," Bošnjak said.
The practice of avoiding control hearings in the Parliament also existed in earlier convocations.
During the government Zdravka Krivokapića, it was common for him or his ministers not to appear at the scheduled control hearing. Thus, Krivokapić did not come to the control hearing that was scheduled for June 2021 at the Committee for Security and Defense at the initiative of the then DF deputy Nebojše Medojevića. In the letter he sent to the members of the Committee, Krivokapić then said that if he had not previously assumed the obligation during the session of the Committee, he would have considered responding to the invitation of this parliamentary body. The then minister Spajić also informed the members of the Committee that he would not come to the hearing, and the director of ANB, as announced from his office, was officially absent. Krivokapić and the then Minister of Internal Affairs Sergej Sekulovic in December 2021, they did not come to the scheduled control hearing before the Security and Defense Committee. In the same year, Krivokapić said that he does not come to control hearings, because he would spend "20 hours" there.
Bosniak: Whoever humiliates the parliament is headed for ruin
Bosniak assessed that the one who avoids and humiliates the parliament, inevitably rushes to ruin.
"Today there is a lot of populism, amateurism, improvisation and inexperience on the political scene, there is a huge lack of statesmanship and I am sure that the masks are falling and that the people can already see it. If we keep in mind that the government's first move was to cancel live broadcasts and that it is much more difficult to get information, that presented facts and projections change from hour to hour, that illegal procedures are announced 'without pardon' and there are more and more direct non-transparent so-called . strategic agreements, then our society takes on the characteristics of an absolutist regime and it is clear why the control hearing is avoided", said Bošnjak.
MPs and members of the Government would like to be above the law and rules
Popović Trstenjak said that, in addition to the representative and legislative functions of the Assembly, which must also be further strengthened in order to fulfill the strategic goal of harmonizing Montenegrin legislation with the EU legal system, but also a higher level of social organization, excluding control hearings or faking them with something less problematic topics further reduces the possibility of Montenegro having a functional parliamentary democracy and thereby disrupts the relationship between the various branches of government in this country.
"Ultimately, this emphasizes the need to get both the Law on the Assembly and the Law on the Government as soon as possible, even though it is already clear that the biggest opponents of the legal regulation of their work are the MPs and members of the Government. In that way, and through that example, they show that they should be above the law and rules, and that is not a responsible approach," said Popović Trstenjak.
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