As MPs race against deadlines and laws are being passed faster than agenda items, December in parliament increasingly resembles an exam period in which European law is tested at one minute to midnight. Prime Minister Milojko Spajić reminded the parliament yesterday that by the end of the year, around a hundred laws will be in the parliament, mostly those that align with European Union regulations.
"We know that joining the European Union implies harmonizing all laws with their law, and that is exactly the case and what is happening now. We have agreed on the dynamics of work in the parliament itself, which will mean that we will work on weekends in the previous period, so that we can adopt all laws," said Jelena Nedović, MP for the Europe Now Movement (PES).
The issues at stake, says Nedović, are mostly laws in the area of finance. The accelerated pace of their adoption, the opposition says, raises the question of the sustainability of the debate and preparation, especially considering that December in the Parliament is traditionally reserved for the budget.
"It is as if we are forgetting that these laws are not only important for Montenegro's European integration process, these laws regulate life in Montenegro. However, it seems that people in the Government are not very interested in this, and they continue to demonstrate an extremely inadequate attitude not only towards the Parliament, but also towards the citizens who elected us all," said DPS MP Ivan Vuković.
The civil sector reminds us that passing laws at one minute to midnight is nothing new in our system, nor is the fact that the legislative process, in which public debates are skipped, is extremely non-transparent.
"We had such a situation during the preparation and adoption of the so-called Ibar Law+. The big problem here is that we are not doing comprehensive legislative reforms at all. We are changing parts of the law, changing individual sentences. In fact, we are implementing reforms in a hundred parts instead of doing the job all at once and quality, and that is why we are gradually returning to the same laws," said Milena Gvozdenović from the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT).
The CDT points out that the lack of transparency of the legislative process is reflected in the fact that the public does not even know which laws are in question.
"We have very important anti-corruption laws. The Law on the Prevention of Corruption, the Law on Whistleblowers, which conclude a very detailed discussion and consultation. A law dealing with the salaries of judicial office holders was also supposed to be adopted by the end of the year, but again, according to some announcements, we see that this will not happen. Then we have the law on the protection of personal data in order to align with the GDPR. In the area of human rights, the law on the Ombudsman, the law on legal gender recognition based on self-determination, which is also long awaited," Gvozdenović points out.
As December slowly draws to a close, both the government and the opposition say that the fact that laws harmonized with European regulations are being discussed at one minute to midnight is not solely the fault of the government.
"The procedure is such that these laws are first sent to the EU, then some things are corrected, or adapted, they are sent back, possibly if necessary, some more amendments are made, and this very often takes a couple of months," explained Bogdan Božović, an SNP MP.
"It is not easy to prepare all of this, send it to Brussels, and get feedback, so in part objective circumstances probably condition such dynamics, and I am quite sure that it was done on time + that it could have looked different," said Vuković.
The deputies, given all the opportunities, are left to choose what to read and what to adopt. As the rhythm of the assembly is once again dictated by deadlines, not debates, the votes of the deputies become more of a technical obligation than a considered position.
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