The meeting addressed the issues of the European standards in the field of local democracy, European Charter of Local Self-Government ratified by Montenegro in 2008 and assessment of the state of local democracy in the Council of Europe member states.  

-The Parliament of Montenegro has made significant steps in building the legislative framework, but there is a room for additional improvement of the existing regulations and adoption of new laws, aimed at more successful work and better functioning of local administrations, Mr Mustafić noted.

Topics of the meeting were the current situation in local administrations and the overall state of local democracy in Montenegro.

Vice President Mustafić particularly referred to the importance of introducing the human resources planning in the local self-governments, planning and standardising policies of salaries in the public sector in line with fiscal capacities of economy, improvement of efficiency, productivity and enhancement of quality of services which will be useful primarily to citizens, and reducing the number of employees in the public sector.

Mr Mustafić also pointed out to objective problems following the process of implementation of reforms.

- In some municipalities, particularly those in the north of the state, there are problems caused by lagging in the regional development, several decades long small investments in infrastructure as well as the the collapse of the former economic capacities in that region. Additionally, inadequate human resources capacities, insufficient knowledge, skills and experience in undertaking complex tasks, especially when it comes to projects for attracting foreign investments from European funds as well as economic crisis are making the situation more complex and slow down the necessary reform processes, Mr Mustafić said. Mr Mustafić voiced a full support to legislative regulations strengthening the competences of the local administrations and transfer of competencies from the state to local level.