Government and Ministry fulfil program obligations: We are no obstacle for Committee to do its job

The Government of Montenegro and the Ministry of Culture have in a single way been an obstacle to the current work of the Committee for the reform of electoral and other legislation, media laws to be presented from their side, Minister of Culture Aleksandar Bogdanović stated during today’s answers to parliamentary questions in the Assembly of Montenegro.

He highlighted that in case of establishment of the Draft Law on National Public Broadcaster of Radio and Television of Montenegro, the Government and the Ministry exclusively perform the duties defined by the Constitution.

He added that the Government of Montenegro and the Ministry of Culture thus have fulfilled their program obligations and it is in no way an obstacle for the Assembly Committee on Comprehensive Electoral Law to do its job.

Bearing in mind that the Government mandated the drafting on the law before the formation of this Assembly Committee and that it was obliged to implement this program obligation, in accordance with the opinions of the Council of Europe and the European Commission and that in accordance with the highest European standards and comparative practice, as well as that it will be subject of further parliamentary procedures and accordingly, of the Committee for the reform of electoral and other legislation.

The Government exclusively performed its duties defined by the Constitution and established Draft Law mandated in 2018, thus making the text based on the highest standards available to the Committee and whole public for comment and expert review at all stages of the process.

For all of the above, I am pleased to highlight that the Draft Law on National Public Broadcaster of Radio and Television of Montenegro, which was ultimately the subject of three expert monitoring, the Council of Europe and the European Commission, are implemented all the Council of Europe recommendations from the JUFREX analysis of the Montenegro’s media sector in the context of the subject matter, all the recommendations form the triple expertise of the Council of Europe and the European Commission and that the proposal of the Council of Europe and the European Commission, in the final opinion was assessed as "fully in the line with the Council of Europe standards", i.e. "it does not require additional changes", Minister Bogdanović noted.