In the latest progress report, the European Commission clearly identified key challenges and priorities in the area of human rights and the rule of law in Montenegro. The report highlights the critical situation in chapters 23 and 24, while pointing to benchmarks that are essential for further progress in the process of accession to the European Union. At the same time, it is emphasized that before the new Government of Montenegro, the imperative tasks are the improvement of human rights and the implementation of key judicial reforms.
The fact that the European Commission has assessed that no progress has been made in the area of judicial reform and that it is facing a deep institutional crisis shows that the new Government has a huge job to do, and thus the priorities that must be guided during the term of office have been clearly set. If the situation in this area, which has been particularly criticized this year, is not improved by the next EC report, we will run the serious risk of damaging the credibility of the entire system, and further worsening the already shaky trust of citizens. That is why the election of the President of the Supreme Court, the Supreme State Prosecutor, the election of the President of the Commercial Court as well as the members of the Judicial Council must be put on the agenda immediately.
It was to be expected that the European Commission would recognize the dysfunctionality of the Constitutional Court, in which the issue of missing judges should be resolved as soon as possible, taking into account the decision-making process. It turned out to be true what the Civic Alliance warned about, namely that the Constitutional Court is only formally unblocked and that without the election of the missing judge, this institution will not be substantially unblocked. We remind you of the current discussion in the public about the decision of the Constitutional Court regarding the amendment of the Law on PIO, which created a huge problem for everyone who wants to retire, all so that one of the judges of the Constitutional Court could extend her mandate. That is why we point out that it is very important and necessary for the Government at its first session to adopt changes to the Law on PIO and solve the very difficult situation in which the Constitutional Court has brought us.
The new Government will also have to prioritize the reform of the electoral legislation, because for the past year we have witnessed abuses of it, where it served the majority to score political points.
Regarding the respect of basic human rights, the emphasis is rightly placed on the ineffective implementation of the law because it is best reflected in relation to the most vulnerable categories of society. That’s why we have a Roma population that is still on the margins of society, facing multiple forms of discrimination, a large number of women victims of violence, old unsolved cases of murders and attacks on journalists, victims of torture and overstepping of police powers, and an increase in social polarization and hate speech.
When we talk about the report of the European Commission in the part of the participation in the public political scene of members of the Roma and Egyptian population, specifically in the part of the reduction of the census and their entry into the Montenegrin parliament, we agree with the assessment of the EC that it is necessary to make additional efforts in order to make the voice of members of the Roma community and the Egyptian population just heard from the parliament. This concretely implies that by the next parliamentary elections, the Government of Montenegro must initiate and undertake concrete steps regarding the revision of the census, first of all starting from the number of RE population in Montenegro. A good prerequisite for the adequate creation of a policy to reduce the census would be a census of the population in Montenegro, as a starting point. We must mention that the newly elected 44th Government of Montenegro has shown readiness for cooperation and participation of the RE population in the upcoming population census. It is positive that in the parliamentary convocation of the capital Podgorica, and for the first time in Montenegro, we have a representative of the RE population who is also the president of the Roma Council in Montenegro. In the part of the report that refers to the education system, the number of children enrolled in relation to the number of those who complete primary school is still prohibitive.
During the year 2023, as in previous years, the Roma settlement in Berane is turning blue, which we can see and not stated through the EU report, and directly leads to the endangerment of the Re population. The problem of standardization and the introduction of the Romani language into the education system is still one of the biggest issues in the education process. Not only is it not studied in schools, but in Montenegro we don’t even have a court interpreter for the Romani language, and it survives only thanks to the nurturing of the Romani community.
We also agree with the assessment that solving the problem of begging is important in Montenegro. It is an integral part of everyday life that children from the RE population beg at a very early age, but also that citizens are largely unaware that it is a criminal offense to encourage begging, and that the image of giving money on the street is something that can be seen regularly.
The problem of solving statelessness is a big challenge that lies before the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Montenegro as the competent institution for solving legal status, so we can conclude that there are certain results in this area, but that they are far from those recommended by the UNHCR office in Montenegro. .
The European Commission also emphasized the importance of conducting efficient and independent investigations in order to solve police torture. It is very important to work on raising the capacity of judges, prosecutors and police officers regarding the elimination of torture, as well as the implementation of the standards of the European Court of Human Rights. We must also make efforts in order to strengthen the quality of the evidentiary procedure, and then to adequately sanction police officers against whom proceedings are being conducted for exceeding their authority. The new government must investigate all allegations of police brutality and change the current culture of impunity, i.e., the weak penal policy for police officers. We would like to remind you that according to the latest available information from the ODT, only in the previous year thirteen cases were formed based on reports of abuse, and the same number in 2023, of which five cases are in the investigation process, in one case an indictment was filed, while seven cases ended in rejection.
Referring to the prison system and conditions of detention, emphasis was also placed on certain progress in the implementation of the recommendations of the CPT (Convention for the Prevention of Torture) from 2019. However, despite a certain degree of progress, it is worrisome that Montenegro ranks among the European record holders for the number of convicts per capita. This data clearly indicates the need for reforms in our judicial system, especially in terms of greater application of alternative sanctions. Their essence lies in the fact that the convicted person serves his sentence, e.g. through work in the public interest, which additionally enables the social rehabilitation of convicts.
In the field of asylum and migration, Montenegro has not yet introduced a system of identification and registration of fingerprints of migrants connected to the central biometric database, which system would be connected to EURODAC, which leads to the risk of double registration of migrants after secondary movements, re-entry Montenegro and subsequent requests for asylum.
Montenegro still remains one of the leading countries in terms of the number of Ukrainian citizens it has received, in relation to the number of inhabitants. Although the decision of the Government of Montenegro extended the temporary protection until March 11, 2024, the extension procedure itself was not easy. Namely, the procedure did not include an automatic replacement, but required a personal visit, which created large crowds that made the procedure more difficult. We must emphasize that still, on key issues related to access to all rights, solutions are found ad hoc at the moment they are current, and that such solutions are short-lived. An example of an ad hoc solution is the appearance of the document on temporary protection, which is on ordinary A4 white paper with a picture, and as such creates confusion in any institution, because it is not clear whether it is a personal document or not. The reason for adopting ad hoc solutions is that even after a year and a half since the beginning of the war, other laws have not been harmonized with the Law on International and Temporary Protection of Foreigners. Therefore, the Law on Health Insurance, the Law on Social and Child Protection, and the Law on Mediation and Rights during Unemployment await harmonization, in order to recognize foreigners with temporary protection and to enable them to exercise their rights from those laws.
Access to the right to education and health care is still the biggest challenge. If we compare the number of school-age children with approved temporary protection and the number of children from Ukraine enrolled in primary schools, it is still a rather low figure. We are aware of the fact that the war is still going on, that the majority of people have chosen Montenegro as their home country, so it is surprising that children from Ukraine do not attend primary school, which will further imply that they will not be in high school or university. and there are some in the country. Ad hoc solutions continue in access to the right to health care, until the Law on Health Care and Health Insurance is harmonized, because now foreigners with temporary protection, although they have a designated JMBG, do not have the right to a health card, so the health system does not recognize them.
Although the EU made a decision to extend the temporary protection until March 4, 2025. It remains to be seen whether Montenegro, as a candidate for EU membership, will extend temporary protection, or whether the status issue of these persons will be regulated in some other way. We hope that, if a decision is made on the extension, the procedure itself will be easier and simpler.
It is commendable that Montenegro received, in addition to Ukrainian citizens, a large number of Russian citizens and that there were no recorded conflicts between the two populations, and such a large influx of people did not threaten the level of security in Montenegro.
An example of good practice would be that persons can now express their intention to submit a request for international protection to the inspector for foreigners in some municipalities. On the other hand, this is still not possible, for example, during border control at the border crossing, although the law prescribes this possibility. Although the working hours of the border police in Božaj have been extended, in order to enable the expression of the intention to seek asylum throughout the day, in practice it is not quite so and we have witnessed that there were cases when it was not possible to express the intention in the late afternoon or evening hours, but persons who found themselves in front of the camp had to wait until the next day to express their intention.
Progress has also been made compared to the previous period, and now first-instance proceedings generally last shorter. However, there are exceptions, and in certain, more complicated cases, the decision is waited longer. As in previous years, we attribute this to a lack of staff, because the hiring of additional staff would certainly have an impact on all first-level decisions being made within six months. Also, no one raised the question of responsibility for the inaction of the institutions when it comes to the funds of 400,000 euros allocated by the EU as aid for the construction of the Reception Center in Božaj, and the state was not able to prepare the tender documentation on time.
We agree that there has been no progress in protecting the rights of LGBT people, and this is supported by attacks on LGBT activists and numerous incidents of hate speech directed specifically at members of this vulnerable category. We hope that in the period ahead, the Law on Legal Gender Recognition based on self-determination will be adopted and that the Law on Life Partnership of Persons of the Same Sex will be finally harmonized with other legal acts. Also, it is necessary to work on solving the problem of hate speech, especially when it comes to recognizing and sanctioning it, as well as effective prevention of hate speech through work with representatives of institutions and the general public.
Regarding the processing of domestic war crimes, i.e. the EC finding that Montenegro has made progress in domestic processing, we do not find that the results of the Special State Prosecutor’s Office in that domain were good enough. We emphasize that there is only one ongoing trial for the case for which the indictment was brought two years ago after Bosnia and Herzegovina forwarded the case to Montenegro.
We will remind you that the first predictions of Montenegro’s entry into the European Union were for the end of 2018, and the same were stated by the first negotiator, Aleksandar Pejović. However, today, 11 years later, we have frequent statements about the stagnation of the integration process, and behind us we only have open chapters that are followed by gaps in the action plans, fulfilling the form and not the essence of the fulfillment of the conditions necessary for closing the chapter. As a reminder, Croatia completed the negotiations for joining the EU in six years. Iceland opened and closed chapters 23 and 24 in one day. After the initial basis was achieved, which entailed the adoption of various strategies, laws, etc., we reached a phase of stagnation that requires measurable reforms, especially in the most complex negotiation chapters 23 and 24, in which there are no required results. The European Commission points to this year after year in its reports. However, despite the positive view of the previous Governments, another year passes, and the closing of key chapters is still uncertain. That is why the report that was presented at the very beginning of the mandate of the new Government should serve as a guide in which direction they must lead their policy and that it must be aimed at improving stagnant grades.
