Chairperson of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms Mr Halil Duković met with co-rapporteurs of the Monitoring Committee of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe - Ms Gaye Doganoglu and Mr Henrik Brade Johanse, who are paying a three-day monitoring visit to Montenegro. In addition to the Chairperson of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms, the following also took part in the meeting - Mr Rifat Rastoder, Chairperson of the Committee on Political System, Judiciary and Administration, and Ms Snežana Jonica, Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on Political System, Judiciary and Administration.

The representatives of the CE were interested in the relationship between the Parliament and local authorities, and whether there were a sufficient number of mechanisms for transferring certain tasks from the central to the regional level. Additionally, they were interested to know if discrimination occurred at the local level, given that Montenegro was ethically very diverse country.

Chairperson of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms Mr Halil Duković said that in addition to MP’s function he also performed a function of a councillor and Head of the DPS MP Group in the Urban Municipality Tuzi, composed majorly of minorities, stressing that that Urban Municipality may serve as the best example of the state of human rights in local self-governments. In the Assembly of the Urban Municipality Tuzi, discussions are held in the Albanian language, as a language officially used in Montenegro, and documents are translated and delivered to councillors in Montenegrin – as the official language and Albanian language – as a language in official use. Job scheme envisages that more than two thirds of staff employed in the Urban Municipality Tuzi must speak the language of minorities living in that area. The constitutional right on the usage of national symbols is respected as well as celebration of national minorities’ holidays, which means that during the said holidays – the Local Assembly displays national symbols of minorities in addition to state symbols. The Chairperson of the Committee stressed that special attention was devoted to celebration of religious holidays, given that representatives of all religions lived in that area.   

Mr Halil Duković concluded that Montenegro had a very good legislation, harmonised with the EU law, which protected the rights of minority nations and other minority national communities, but discrimination may be detected in other segments, primarily due to problems in financial functioning of the local self-governments.

Chairperson of the Committee Mr Halil Duković informed the co-rapporteurs that local assemblies in Montenegro introduced the system of “empty seat” for representatives of nongovernmental sector interested in participation in discussion on some topics. Furthermore, services of the local assemblies are at disposal to citizens who may present their proposals and suggestions for improving the state in certain fields, but they may also submit complaints about the work of the local self-governments. Transparency of local self-governments is improving, so numerous various information are available at the web sites of municipalities.  

The Chairperson of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms assessed that local self-governments in Montenegro had too much financial freedom, and that it caused the bad financial state in some municipalities. Given that development of human rights depends on economic development, he thinks that insufficient economic development influenced that some of the principles of human rights are not followed to the highest degree. The system of local self-government in Montenegro is monotypic and all self-governments function according to the same principle. However, municipalities differ greatly regarding the size, number of citizens, economic development, so it is questionable if the monotypic system is good, given that the municipalities with same resources have achieved different financial results due to mismanagement of financial policy in some of them, thus Mr Duković considers that it is a positive thing that the Government of Montenegro is drafting a Study on polytypic model of functioning of the local self-governments.

MP Ms Snežana Jonica stressed that she had a very critical position on the quality of the work and functioning of the local self-governments. Led by the European Charter of Local Self-Government, Montenegro has made significant steps in laws relating to local self-governments, giving a significant room to decentralisation, which is one of the most significant provisions of the Charter. However, decentralisation process, according to Ms Jonica has been halted by the local self-governments and has not reached to the citizens yet. A particular problem is a very bad financial state in the majority of local self-governments, which is a consequence of decision-making without the interference of the central government. She stated that there was 60 million euros of the tax debt towards the state as well as blockage in the functioning of the local self-governments if the state does not provide the help, and that is the reason why the state – in the attempt to correct mistakes made in the functioning of the local self-governments – made a contract on reprogramming of the debt with majority of local self-governments.  Salaries of a number of employees in some local self-government were incomparably higher than those in the state administration. There were striking examples of increasing the number of employees in the municipalities were a rationalisation should have been carried out, i.e. where the the number of employees should have been decreased. She stressed that it was one of the reasons for holding a control hearing about a year and a half ago of the Minister of Interior and Minister of Finance, organised by the Committee on Political System, Judiciary and Administration and Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget. In line with conclusions reached at the control hearing, it is necessary to analyse different forms of organisation and functioning of the local self-governments, i.e transition from monotypic to polytypic system, so that municipalities with small number of citizens are not obliged to have all bodies which have municipalities with greater number of citizens, which will eventually disburden them from additional financial expenses.

Chairperson of the Committee on Political System, Judiciary and Administration said that he had a very critical position on the system of the local self-government in Montenegro, and that Montenegro needed urgent and expert help in this field. The Parliament, through its control function, monitors the application of the regulations it adopts, and has a duty of adopting good legislation, so that the local self-governments may have a good basis for application. He said that the Parliament of Montenegro had no administrative competences over the work of local self-governments, but that the Government i.e. relevant Ministry of Interior had, however he was not certain if the Ministry used that competences as it should.

When it comes to human rights, he said that Montenegro had a good legislation which was not only harmonised with the European standards, but it was also innovated in that field. However, the discrimination may be discussed in the context of creating conditions for functioning of local self-governments in Montenegro. He said that the north of Montenegro, despite huge natural resources,  was on the border of biological survival, since the population migrated towards European countries, due to underdevelopment There is one underdeveloped municipality in the south also, so such situation, according to Mr Rastoder’s assessment may be considered as indirect discrimination.   

MP Rastoder thinks that too many competences are transferred to local self-governments, but that from the position of citizens’ needs, it was not enough. He stated that the monotypic concept of the local self-government originating from the socialist period did not exist anywhere else in Europe. He pointed put to huge disproportion i.e. difference among Montenegrin municipalities regarding the size of the area, number of citizens and potentials. Additionally, he mentioned a huge number of employees in local self-governments, stating that in the time of crisis local self-governments served as “centres of social employment”, and the Government of Montenegro helped them in solving those problems on several occasions.

The co-rapporteurs asked if political parties talked on problems in financing local self-governments at the meetings they held, MP Rastoder stated that they discussed that issue, but that it was the problem which could not be solved at the level of political parties. He thinks that Montenegro needs expert held of the Council of Europe and European Union in this part, so it is necessary to carry out a detailed analysis of the system of the local self-governments, in order to adjust our system and thus regulate in the manner which is functional in the European countries.

Co-rapporteur Mr Johansen asked for explanation of the statements that municipalities have got decentralisation, but they were not proceeded towards citizens. He said that they held meetings with mayor of the Capital City and representatives of the Community of Municipalities who informed them that there were activities aimed at improving the relations of local self-governments towards citizens and nongovernmental organisations.

MP Ms Snežana Jonica stated that there was a concept of the “empty seat” which enabled the civil sector to participate in discussions in local assemblies and that representatives of the civil sectors were members of some working bodies, but all that comes down to participation of those representatives in the discussion, and at the end, since they had no right to vote, their participation in this manner was just formal and not essential. There is a decision on participation of citizens in reaching decisions, but she thinks that that decision has been implemented only formally and does not accomplish its aim, because the citizens are not animated to give suggestions and opinions and to participate in the decision-making process, nor they get feedback whether their opinion influenced on the adopted decision.  

Co-rapporteur Ms Doganoglu wanted to know when the consideration of the Proposal for the Law on Communal Services was planned, and Ms Jonica answered that there was a certain disagreement in the ruling coalition about some provisions, while MP Rastoder added that it was necessary to harmonise the concept of solutions for certain issues, in order to provide the parliamentary majority for the adoption of this law.

Given that Montenegro has expressed reservations on certain provisions of the European Charter on Local Self-Government, co-rapporteur Doganoglu asked when it was going to be at the Parliament’s agenda. MP Jonica announced that, according to the information she had, the Parliament would simultaneously discuss the Proposal for the Law on Amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government and consider whether Montenegro has achieved that level to remove reservation from some articles of the European Charter on Local Self-Government. She stressed that Montenegro have emphasised reservations out of caution even though those have been partially implemented

Chairperson of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms Mr Halil Duković pointed put to the problem of human resources which additionally influenced the functioning of local self-governments in Montenegro. The majority of municipalities are facing the lack of professional staff to work for the interests of citizens. Due to transition from socialist to multi-party system and dissolution of Yugoslavia, the factories also collapsed, so there is huge unemployment in the north of Montenegro. The state founded the Equalization Fund for providing help to municipalities which cannot accomplish obligations prescribed by the law, and out of 23 municipalities in Montenegro, 14 are using resources from this fund. Urban Municipality Tuzi, mentioned in written documents in 1222, and Golubovci, once independent municipalities are territorially distant from the Capital, and the Law on the Capital City was adopted as an interim solution in order to promote and strengthen human and financial capacity of these parts of the metropolitan area. The budgets of these two urban municipalities are now bigger than budgets of a significant number of municipalities in Montenegro.

Meeting of the co-rapporteurs of the Monitoring Committee of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe with the Chairperson of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms and representatives of the Committee on Political System, Judiciary and Administration is a part of the monitoring visit aimed at assessment of the state of local democracy for the purpose of drafting the Report on the state of local democracy in Montenegro, which will be prepared by the end of this year and submitted to competent bodies for providing opinion, and afterwards in will be considered at the Committee in October of this year.