At today's meeting, the Committee on European Integration considered innovated action plans for chapters 23 - Judiciary and fundamental rights and 24 - Justice, freedom and security.

The agenda also envisaged the consideration of the Second semi-annual report on the overall activities within integration process of Montenegro to the European Union, for the period July – December 2014, but due to inability of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration to attend the meeting, the consideration of this document has been postponed for the following meeting.

The Action plan for chapter 23 was presented by Mr Zoran Pažin, Minister of Justice and Ms Svetlana Rajković, member of the negotiation group for negotiation chapters 23 and 24. In his introductory remarks, Mr Pažin said that a close cooperation between the Parliament and the Government was very important, having in mind that difficult negotiation period was to come, which should be passed through dialogue and joint cooperation. He was interested in MPs’ view regarding the steps to be made in facing the challenges from 23 and 24.

On the occasion of presenting the main aspect of the Action plan for negotiation chapter 23, Ms Svetlana Rajković said that it was conceptualised through four fields: justice, fight against corruption, fundamental rights and cooperation with NGO sector. It was also emphasised that both action plans were “live” documents, which strategically envisaged the implementation of activities within the said chapters, so they were subjected to constant adaptation.

The Committee members emphasised the need for more concrete actions within the fields contained in chapter 23, primarily through building capacities for more decisive actions in fighting corruption and organised crime. MPs stressed that the reform process in this field should be implemented through systemic approach, and that presumption of innocence should be resprected as an important legal principle as well as proactivity of judicial and prosecutorial bodies with regard to actions when there is reasonable doubt.

Ms Svetlana Rajković, member of the negotiation group for negotiation chapters 23 and 24 and Ms Mira Cerović, Head of the Working Group for chapter 23 spoke on the Action plan for chapter 24. They presented main objectives divided into 10 fields: migration, asylum, visa policy, foreign borders and Schengen legal acquis, judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters, police cooperation and fight against organised crime, fight against terrorism, prevention of drugs abuse, customs cooperation and euro counterfeiting.

With regard to challenges that are to come in these chapters, MPs emphasised that it was necessary for the authorities to establish stronger structure for fighting organised criminal groups and to improve communication in the region in respect of judicial cooperation. Additionally, the participants spoke on the need for allocating greater funds for strengthening administrative and technical capacities, as in the case of mechanism for saving people, goods and environment.