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Press release on Cabinet's decisions made on 23 and 24 July, without holding session

Published on: Jul 25, 2020 • 1:30 AM Author: PR Service
Podgorica, Montenegro (24 July 2020) -- The Montenegrin Cabinet passed, without holding a session and based on the obtained consent of the majority of Cabinet's members, the third package of socio-economic measures, worth EUR 1.22 billion, to support the economy for mitigating the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, which covers a period of four years. 

The Cabinet adopted the Draft Law amending the Law on Value Added Tax, which, due to extraordinary, urgent and unpredictable circumstances caused by the Covid-19 virus, proposes the adoption of certain normative solutions to provide, as soon as possible, the assistance to the most affected part of the economy with the aim of overcoming the negative consequences in business, and additional harmonization will be made with the Council Directive 2006/112 EC on the common system of value added tax, in accordance with the dynamics envisaged in the Negotiating Position.

The Cabinet also passed the Proposal of urgent measures of the Government of Montenegro as a support to citizens, in order to reduce the negative effects of the coronavirus epidemic, which obliges the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare to provide beneficiaries of basic material benefits from social protection namely the right to care allowance, personal disability benefits and rights to material security on the basis of incapacity for work, the right to which was determined for a limited period and ceased in the period from 1 June 2020 to 7 July 2020, and which in that period were not subject to the work of first instance social and medical commissions in exercising the rights from the period of termination of rights to the re-establishment of the work of the commission, when the continued use of these rights will be reviewed and in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance provide funds for payment of fees for the period when the fee was terminated.

The Cabinet adopted the Draft Law on Innovation Activity and the Draft Law on Incentive Measures for the Development of Research and Innovation and submitted proposals to the Assembly for adoption in an abbreviated procedure.

The Draft Law on innovation activity regulates in a new way the legal institutes within the defined national innovation system consisting of interconnected entities, the Government of Montenegro, ministries and other state administration bodies and local self-government units, the Council for Innovation and Smart Specialisation and the Innovation Fund of Montenegro, which encourage the development and finance of innovation, as well as entities that perform innovation (legal and natural persons), entities that provide innovation infrastructure, investors in innovation, and other entities from the system of science, education and economy that contribute to the development of innovation capacity, generating ideas and applying innovation.

The Cabinet has instructed the heads of state administration bodies to provide, within the bodies they manage, measuring body temperature of civil servants and state employees when entering the official premises and to implement additional protection measures to prevent civil servants and state employees from entering and staying in the official premises without a protective mask.

The Cabinet adopted the Draft Law on Ratification of Additional Protocol 6 on Trade in Services to the Agreement on amendments and accession to the Central European Free Trade Agreement, the implementation of which will enable Montenegrin service providers to place their services on the CEFTA market, either through cross-border provision, commercial presence or temporary entry and stay of natural persons for business purposes. Also, the solutions will affect the consumers themselves through the possibility of using the services abroad, i.e. on the CEFTA market. Bearing in mind that the regulation does not contain special restrictions when establishing new economic entities, such treatment and mutual liberalisation will additionally affect the arrival of foreign investors in Montenegro in the service sector.

The Cabinet passed the Information on concluding the Guarantee Agreement for the credit line for the Deposit Protection Fund of Montenegro between the State of Montenegro and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), in the amount of EUR 50 million. It is a credit arrangement that aims to provide financial resources to the Deposit Protection Fund of Montenegro for the purpose of overcoming potential risks caused by the crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The arrangement is part of a project created in response to the aforementioned crisis with the intention of enhancing general confidence in the banking sector. This credit arrangement will replace the credit arrangement concluded in 2010, in the total amount of EUR 30 million.

The Cabinet gave its consent to the Draft Decision amending the Decision on the Amount and Manner of Calculation and Payment of Fees for the Use of National Park Goods, which provides, that from 1 August to 31 December 2020, fees are reduced by 50%: for catering, sales, accommodation and infrastructure facilities (hotels-motels, private accommodation, catering facilities and other tourist facilities, sales and service facilities, use of beaches, Mausoleum of Petar II Petrović Njegoš); for setting up temporary facilities in the area of national parks for performing tourist, catering and sales activities; for rafting and use of vessels in the Skadar Lake National Park; as well as for the use of vessels on the lakes and rafting on the river Tara.

For full press release in Montenegrin, please click here. 

PUBLIC RELATIONS SERVICE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO 

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