Press conference following 56th Cabinet session

Podgorica, Montenegro (28 December 2017) -- Press conference following 56th Cabinet session was held today, 28 December 2017, at the Press Centre of the Government.

At today's Cabinet session, the Government adopted two documents related to the adoption of the proposal by the Ministry of Health on the development of a list of medicines. Member of the Commission in charge of putting or removing medicines from the list in the Ministry of Health Olgica Knežević said at a press conference that this proposal implies a basic and supplementary list, and that this is a completely new concept. Creating this list encourages competitiveness in reducing the price of medicines and therefore prevents favoring any manufacturer. The new list concept will greatly contribute to improving the health of insured persons in Montenegro and to a better quality of life of patients.

The Government adopted today the Information on establishment of a system for the preparation of the Montenegrin version of the acquis communautaire, which touches on the extremely important national issue – the issue of the Montenegrin language and its registration in the EU, European Affairs Minister Aleksandar Andrija Pejović said at a press conference, adding that in the process of joining the EU, Montenegro is obliged to translate the European legal text, that is, the legal texts of the EU into our language.

The Minister emphasised that in the past years, the Ministry of European Affairs has been quite active in this field, adding that thirty-one thousand out of a hundred and sixty pages is translated and a quarter of the said legal text will be translated by summer 2018.

At the end of November, Montenegro received access to the European Commission's website containing translations in all official EU languages, as Minister Pejović said, stressing that the portal will include materials translated into the Montenegrin language in order to provide a place for the Montenegrin language in addition to the valid languages within the EU.

At a press conference held after the Cabinet session, Director General of the Directorate for Civil Status and Personal Documents in the Ministry of the Interior Milanka Baković stated that the Government adopted today the Draft Law on foreigners. According to her, this law will regulate the entry and exit, movement, stay and work of foreigners in Montenegro in accordance with international standards and obligations taken from the action plan for Chapter 24 in order to align the EU acquis with the Law on foreigners.

At today's session, the Government adopted the Development Directions for the period 2018-2021, which is the basic development document of the Government of Montenegro, as Director General of the Directorate for Economic Policy and Development in the Ministry of Finance Iva Vuković said. She stressed that the strategic goal of Montenegro's development is focused on increasing the quality of life of citizens in the long run. Formally, four priority development sectors were identified, namely tourism, energy, agriculture and the manufacturing industry, and nineteen areas of policy were identified. According to her, the key economic policy priorities for the mentioned period are geared towards dynamising economic growth and increasing competitiveness.

The Government adopted at today's session the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Electronic Administration. One of the key issues of the mentioned law is focusing on the introduction of local self-governments into the data exchange system and the introduction of their obligation to publish electronic services on the eGovernment portal, according to Director General of the Directorate for Electronic Administration Milica Janković.

PUBLIC RELATIONS SERVICE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO