Cabinet disscuses Montenegro's EU accession programme, national symbols, organs transplantation, further NGOs development

Podgorica, Montenegro (27 November 2013) -- As part of the negotiation process with the EU, the Government of Montenegro, at its yesterday’s session, adopted the Montenegro's EU Accession Programme for the period 2014 - 2018. After the temporary closure of two negotiation chapters and opening of five more, including the two most demanding concerning the rule of law and justice, as a confirmation of Montenegro’s willingness to respond to the new EU approach, there is a need to design a comprehensive and important strategic document, with a view to ensuring faster and more operational monitoring, coordination and assessment of activities undertaken by all the participants in the negotiation process. The accession program is an effective model for data collection, reporting and planning. In addition to serving as an overall view of the situation in Montenegro, it defines scope and pace of reforms needed for further harmonisation of Montenegro's legislation with that of the EU.

Starting from special minority rights defined by the Constitution, the Government adopted the Law on the selection, use and public display of national symbols, which stipulates public and private use of national symbols, as well as situations when the use of national symbols is prohibited. The law will further promote multi-ethnic character of the state, where the state symbols represent Montenegro and demonstrate loyalty to the state, whereas national symbols reflect national identity.

Government adopted the Bill on the removal and transplantation of human organs for therapeutic purposes, fully regulating standards of quality and safety of transplantation organs, process of selecting organ donors, as well as the system of traceability and notification when exchanging bodies, with further harmonisation with the EU regulations. The bill also prescribes presumed consent in order to procure organs from deceased donors, with the consent of family members, and provided that the person during his/her lifetime has not given a statement to the chosen doctor which explicitly opposes the procedure. The application of this solution will provide a greater number of organs for transplantation for those who have no other treatment options.

The Montenegrin Cabinet adopted on Thursday the strategy for NGOs development in Montenegro, with the Action Plan for its implementation for the period 2014- 2016. The meeting concluded that the strategy is aimed at further boosting legal, institutional and financial conditions for the civil sector development and strengthening of partnerships with the state and local authorities. The action plan is based on the results achieved so far in the development of non-governmental organisations, taking into account socio-economic conditions in Montenegro. In that regard, the document defines the activities aimed at meeting objectives set forth in the Strategy.