Montenegro's Cabinet Session

Podgorica, Montenegro (01 February 2018) -- At today's 60th session, chaired by Prime Minister Duško Marković, the Government of Montenegro adopted the Report on the Implementation of the Work Programme of the Government of Montenegro in 2017 – a document showing the high level of realisation of the Government's Work Programme for 2017 of 84.3%.

The Prime Minister assessed the results of the work of the Government as excellent, noting that a high percentage of the Government's Work Programme's implementation was reflected in all aspects of Government's successful policies. He noted that the excellent result of the realisation of the Government's Work Programme is another confirmation of the quality work on the Programme itself. He also pointed to the need of improving this year's primarily in terms of more balanced deployment of strategic documents within the year.

At today's session, the Government also adopted a Decision establishing the State Commission for Supervision of the Procedure for Revision of Museum Materials and Museum Documentation of the Public Institution "National Museum of Montenegro".

At today's session, the Government adopted the Annex to the report of the European Commision on Montenegro for the period October 2017 – January 2018, containing the situation in the context of the negotiation chapters and information about the activities of the reporting period. The new reporting period will enable the equalisation of statistical data with the calendar year, as well as with the cycle of preparation of the Economic Reform Programme. As in previous years, this package will consist of reports for each country and a statement on the implementation of the Enlargement Strategy.

In order to effectively implement the established excise policy, the Government adopted a Regulation amending the Regulation on the Marking of Tobacco Products and Alcoholic Beverages by Control Excise Marks. The amendment creates the preconditions for suppression of illegal traffic, as well as the introduction of additional measures of protection against counterfeiting.

A Regulation amending the Regulation on Conditions and Procedures for Excercising the Right to Exemption from Customs Duty was adopted as well.

In order to provide better health care for the citizens of the northern region in the field of hyperbaric medicine, the Government adopted a Decision amending the Decision on the Network of Health Institutions.

The Government adopted a Regulation on Financing Projects and Programmes of Non-Governmental Organisations in the Areas of Public Interest. The regulation prescribes the number of points according to each of the legally prescribed criteria and established criteria within each of them for valuating projects, or programmes of non-governmental organisations. Special attention is devoted to defining the method of scoring projects and programmes conducted by independent assessors based on prescribed criteria. Additionally, the compilation of the list of independent assessors is prescribed in detail to ensure their competence and transparency.

The Government adopted the Information on the of the Letter of Intent between the national companies of the gas market operator of the Republic of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia and Montenegro, and approved the text of the Letter of Intent on the establishment of the project company of the Ionian-Adriatic gas pipeline. The signing is planned to be at a meeting of the Project Management Team for the project of construction of the Ionian-Adriatic gas pipeline, within the 4th ministerial meeting, hosted by the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan. A letter of intent is the basis for defining the Agreement on the establishment of a project company, and the proposal has already been accepted by the representatives of other participating countries in this project.

The Programme for Maintenance, Reconstruction and Modernisation of Railway Infrastructure for 2018 was also adopted. The Law on Budget of Montenegro for 2018 allocated a total of EUR 6,800,000.00 for this purpose, EUR 3,540,580.92 of which is allocated for the ongoing maintenance of the construction infrastructure, EUR 1,247,815.08 of which is allocated the ongoing maintenance of the electrical infrastructure, and EUR 2,011,604.00 of which is allocated traffic management and regulation.

PUBLIC RELATIONS SERVICE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO