Parliament adopts amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs and the Law on the National Security Agency

The Parliament of Montenegro adopted tonight amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs and the Law on the National Security Agency (ANB).

The amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs were adopted by 47 MPs, while 12 voted against, and there were no abstentions.

The adoption of the Law on the National Security Agency was supported by 47 MPs, ten were against, and there were no abstentions.

The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) announced that its MPs will resign from their positions as Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, Co-Chair of the Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform, President of the Committee for European Integration and Anti-Corruption, if the parliamentary majority adopts the laws on internal affairs and the National Security Agency (ANS) today.

Minister of Internal Affairs Danilo Šaranović, during the debate on amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs, said that everything that is an integral part of the proposal has not been problematized in any segment.

"Despite manipulations by certain political entities that the EC said that the parliament should not adopt these laws, they clearly said that Montenegro can choose two options - either to adopt these laws and in the meantime to align them with the GDPR and LED after they are adopted, or to adopt these directives first and then adopt these laws," said Šaranović.

He said that he was right and that the final benchmarks could not be met without amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs.

"If in just two final benchmarks for Chapter 24, the EC says that we must employ 446 police officers by the end of this year alone, without taking into account that at least that many will retire, then it is clear that we must change the Law and enable a solution to one of the biggest problems in the Police Administration, which is the personnel deficit," said Šaranović.

DPS leader Danijel Živković accused Šaranović of purging the security system with the aim of turning an emancipated and modern Montenegro into a police state, which Šaranović rejected.

Živković said that preventing a person from presenting arguments, disrespecting the presumption of innocence, and retroactively applying the law to previous cases are violations of the Constitution.

"You expect the opposition to push everything you can think of through the system under the guise of alleged European integration and to be constructive along the way. Of course we won't," said Živković.

He said that this was the wrong path for Montenegro.

"If this is adopted today, the hand that was extended to the joint effort on the European path has been withdrawn. As far as we are concerned, we will no longer participate in the Electoral Reform Committee, and the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament has no need to participate in simulating democracy in the position of the Chairman of the Committee for European Integration and Anti-Corruption," Živković stated.

As he added, for DPS, that is over, including the work of the Inquiry Committee.

"If you intend to destroy the democratic and constitutional system of Montenegro, we will not participate in that, but will organize ourselves in a slightly different way and plan of work in the Parliament," said Živković.

Read how the entire debate in the Parliament went. here.