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DPM Pažin: Government fulfiled or is continuously ...
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DPM Pažin: Government fulfiled or is continuously fulfiling all its obligations under chapters 23 and 24
Published on: Nov 1, 2019 • 10:22 PM Author: PR Service
Podgorica, Montenegro (1 November 2019) -- Everything that falls within the remit of the Government related to chapters 23 and 24 has been implemented or is being continuously implemented, Deputy Prime Minister Zoran Pažin said, taking questions from members of the Anti-Corruption Committee in the Parliament of Montenegro earlier today.
"If you read closely the European Commission's report, you will see that the Government is commended for all that is a direct competence of the Government in the integration process. This includes, first and foremost, the drafting of high-quality laws, of which there have been about 70 so far pertaining to chapters 23 and 24, and which have been adopted by this Parliment, after being passed by the Government. Everything falling within the remit of the Government has been implemented or is being implemented on a continuous basis. There is no obligation that has been designated as an obligation of the Government in relation to chapters 23 and 24 that has remained unfulfilled,” DPM Pažin highlighted.
The Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that the Government's task was to draft high-quality laws in line with the standards of the acquis communautaire and that the Government did so. “About 70 laws relating to chapters 23 and 24 have been drafted and are now an integral part of our legal system. The Government was also tasked to establish institutions responsible for the prevention and repression of corruption and organised crime. This is done - the Anti-- Corruption Agency and the Special State Prosecutor's Office were established. What the Government cannot do, not because it does not want to, but because that is what the separation of powers is, it cannot implement those laws. And this is the next challenging phase of the integration process - the implementation of the law passed by the Government and adopted by the Parliament."
When asked about his earlier statement on public trust in the State Prosecutor's Office, the DPM Pažin replied: "When I spoke about the unacceptably low public trust in the Prosecutor's Office, I certainly did not speak about the results the Prosecutor's Office has yielded, especially in the area of fighting corruption and organised crime, and in particular I did not speak about the results of the Special Prosecutor's Office. On the contrary, the Special Prosecutor's Office knows that they enjoy strong support of the Minister of Justice for all their efforts and results. If there had not been those results, there would not have been progress in meeting the obligations from chapters 23 and 24.What I wanted to point out, when speaking about the unacceptably low level of public trust in the Prosecutor's Office, and I have the right to my political stance, is the inappropriate response of the Prosecutor's Office, as a single entity, to, at the very least, inappropriate behaviour seen in the recordings that the Montenegrin public had the opportunity to see."
"We in the Ministry of Justice considered that after the end of his term of office, having in mind all these circumstances, the Chief State Prosecutor should distance himself from the case itself, and distancing himself from the case, in a situation where there is a clear hierarchical organisation of the Prosecutor's Office, is not possible otherwise than to delegate his authority to one of he associates. And that is my position, which I also shared with the Supreme State Prosecutor. The Supreme State Prosecutor eventually took a different stance, which I respect, but it does not deny me the right to state my political position - that we as a society must and can only move forward in a way that establishes a clear line of responsibility in all public authorities, starting from the chief of an institution. In depth, not the other way around. Therefore, I have not denied the results of the Prosecutor's Office in any way, but I believe that a clear line of responsibility in this case is missing and that this is something that we need to work on as a qualitative step forward in developing democracy in Montenegro."
Speaking about the 2013 constitutional amendments, which introduced a high qualified majority for the election of members of the Judicial Council and the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office, the Deputy Prime Minister recalled that, while participating in the work of the Venice Commission, he indicated a potential danger for Montenegro to come to a situation of a kind of blockage. In that context, he stated: “No one is forbidding the opposition to elect the Judicial Council. You are not going to tell me that not one of the candidates who applied does not deserve the confidence of the Parliament. Why not encourage the best candidates to apply for these positions with your attitude. We cannot reduce the 2013 constitutional solutions to political arrangements. And obviously in political practice the content of these amendments results in some political arrangements, and now I expect some future political arrangements. I do not see this as a step forward in developing these institutions, which are crucial for combating corruption and organised crime."
The Deputy Prime Minister emphasised the need to overcome this situation through dialogue. "I think we need to open a dialogue on these issues, that our solutions should not be rushed, because they were in some parts rushed in 2013. And that we should not allow ourselves to enter into some new kind of legal adventure as we did in 2013. According to the Constitution, the State Prosecutor's Office is an independent state body. I emphasise, a state body, not a branch of government. However, the position of the Prosecutor's Office today in our political and legal system is as if it is a branch of government. By some attributes of the rule of law, it has more independence than the judiciary, which must be independent in every democratic state. "
Commenting on the assessments that he proposed an alleged unconstitutional legal solution, which prevented the blockade of the Judicial Council's work, the Deputy Prime Minister stated: “The political system would collapse and that would be an alternative to the failure to pass a law extending the mandate of members of the Judicial Council from the ranks of distinguished lawyers to the election of distinguished lawyers in the new convocation of the Judicial Council. We have a situation of a disturbed democratic balance, in which the majority of MPs may have the political position that it is necessary to elect the Judicial Council, while the political minority can block it with their position. But then it is necessary for us all to show a high degree of responsibility and to resolve this issue. What could be an alternative to this view - that there is not a single person in Montenegro who could be considered respected member of the Judicial Council? I do not believe it, and neither do you."
OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
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