Secretary General of the Parliament of Montenegro Mr Siniša Stanković participated in the Conference titled “Making data available for the purpose of creating effective public policies in Montenegro”, in the organisation of the DeFacto Consultancy Agency, as a part of the project: "Strengthening capacities of Parliament’s administration to prepare and evaluate public policies based on data analysis" supported by the United Kingdom Embassy to Montenegro.

In his welcome address, at the opening of the Conference, Secretary General Mr Stanković reminded that it was another “in a number of successful support projects that the United Kingdom’s Government provided for the purpose of strengthening parliamentary administrative capacities and another example of cooperation with partners outside of the Parliament”.

Secretary General Mr Stanković added that “Providing the best possible professional support to MPs remains a priority of the Service of the Parliament of Montenegro”. Mr Stanković said that strengthening of the Parliament’s work was “a process demanding a continuous improvement of capabilities and knowledge of employees, in order to make a support to MPs in adopting informed decision as effective as possible”. Thus, in the previous period, professional staff of committees has initiated the preparation of informative overviews for each proposal for law. Additionally, in 2010, a research service was founded with the task of preparing research papers for the needs of MPs and the service, and its work has been constantly improved, through cooperation with similar services of European and national parliaments, sharing of information among parliaments and through various programme support as well”.

Implementation of the project "Strengthening capacities of Parliament’s administration to prepare and evaluate public policies based on data analysis" started in July 2014, and the programme is aimed at strengthening capacities of research service, secretariats of committees and MP groups in view of preparing research papers which will be useful to MPs both for preparation of regulations and for discussion on laws and other acts. “I am positive that this project will help professional service in committees, Research Centre and staff of MPs clubs to draft comparative scientific works and analyses of data, which will contain expert and detailed information on issues related to policies and legislation” Mr Stanković stressed, and invited at the end present representatives of institutions to share and unify reliable and available data for the purpose of unifying professional capacities.   

Head of the Sector for Research, Documentation and IT Network of the Parliament of Montenegro Ms Nataša Komnenić stressed that “respecting the significance of important democratic principles, the Parliament of Montenegro has implemented a set of measures to bring the work of the Parliament closer to the citizens, thus it has been recognised as one of the most transparent institution in the state and wider”. Presenting the work of her sector, Ms Komnenić stressed that research capacities have been significantly strengthened in the short period, but that there was a room for further improvements in line with requests posed today in front of modern parliaments. “It is primarily related to usage of so-called Open data format in accordance with new technologies, aimed at enabling repeated and easier usage and sharing of data, and their integration with other sources of information”, Ms Komnenić concluded.  

The following spoke at the Conference: Deputy Head of Mission at British Embassy to Montenegro Mr Lyndon Radnedge, representative of DEFacto Agency Ms Olivera Komar, who emphasised previous successful cooperation with the Montenegrin Parliament, placing it among the brightest examples of state administration, representative of theHouse of Commons of the British Parliament Mr David Hirst, UNDP representative Ms Maja Novaković and CDT representative Ms Milica Kovačević.

Within the frameworks of the same project, two-day training for the staff of the Parliament was held, with participation of the representative of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Mr David Hirst. Mr Hirst shared with his counterparts experiences form the work of the parliamentary library of the British Parliament, with special reference to drafting of parliamentary researches.