Press release from 39th Cabinet session

The Montenegrin Cabinet, at its 39th session held on 16 September 2021, chaired by Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić, adopted the Draft Law on Medically Assisted Procreation. The main goal of enacting this Law is to provide opportunities for procreation for married and unmarried spouses who cannot conceive naturally or by other treatment procedures, as well as in the case when this procedure can prevent the transmission of a severe inherited disease to a child. Among other things, the adoption of this Law will meet one of the final benchmarks for closing Chapter 28 - Consumer and Health Protection. 

As part of the process of harmonisation of domestic legislation with the acquis communautaire, the Cabinet adopted the Draft Law on Standardisation. The proposed legal text regulates the organisation and activity of the national body for standardisation (Institute for Standardisation of Montenegro), adoption, publication, withdrawal and application of Montenegrin standards and related documents. The goals of standardisation set by law are: improvement of protection of life, health and safety of people, animals and plants, protection of environment, improvement of quality of products, processes and services, development and improvement of production and trade of products, i.e. provision of services through development of internationally harmonised standards and related documents , as well as the promotion of international trade by preventing or eliminating unnecessary technical barriers to trade.

The Cabinet adopted the decisions on the formation of working groups for the preparation and conduct of negotiations on Montenegro's accession to the European Union in the areas of the acquis communautaire related to negotiating chapters: 1 - Free movement of goods, 3 - Right of establishment and freedom to provide services, 4 - Free movement of capital, 5 - Public procurement, 7 - Intellectual property law, 9 - Financial services, 10 - Information society and media, 16 - Taxation, 17 - Economic and monetary policy and 28 - Consumer and health protection and 33 - Financial and budgetary provisions.

The Report on the work of the National Council for the Fight against High-Level Corruption for the period January-July 2021 was adopted. The Report states, among other things, that the Council started collecting and subsequently disclosing data on the following cases: Možura wind farm, Crnogorski Telekom, Montenegrin Electric Enterprise (EPCG), operations of companies in the Free Zone of the Port of Bar and tobacco company Duvanski kombinat, import and export of cigarettes and weapons, production of cigarettes and weapons on the territory of Montenegro, the First Bank of Montenegro and the Bar-Boljare motorway.

Also, the Council collected and analyzed documentation related to the housing policy of the previous Government. In this regard, there was information about the distribution of about 25 million euros in loans, about 20 thousand square meters of living space in the last ten years and 4.6 million euros in loans in the last three years. These are 580 people who received apartments or loans, of which at least 175 are officials and 405 are civil servants and employees.

The apartments were distributed to the officials without criteria and without advertising, labelling documents "Internal Use Only". It was also pointed out that the National Council determined that the Government distributed apartments and loans to judges, prosecutors and judges of the Constitutional Court contrary to the Law on Maintenance of Apartment Buildings, which explicitly stated that the procedure, manner and criteria for solving housing needs of judges, prosecutors and judges of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro, shall be determined by an act of the Judicial Council, the Prosecutorial Council and the Constitutional Court of Montenegro. Also, it was found that after the change of government, the caretaker Government distributed 119 state-owned apartments and thus state property was significantly damaged.

The Cabinet adopted the Decision on declaring the Katič Nature Park as protected area with the Report on the conducted public debate. Ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Declaration on the Ecological State of Montenegro, the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, among numerous activities, marks this important jubilee by declaring the Katič Nature Park as marine protected area.

The Katič area is proposed for protection due to the value of its biodiversity, especially those species and habitats that need protection, such as habitats of protected seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) that is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. The total area of the Katič Nature Park is 2744.93 ha.

The Information on the implementation of the Project of support to the citizens of Montenegro in the purchase and installation of photovoltaic panels up to 10 kw for individual residential buildings and installation of photovoltaic panels up to 30 kW for legal entities - Project "Solari 3000+ and 500+" was adopted.

The Cabinet gave consent for the candidacy of the Boxing Association of Montenegro for the organisation of the European Youth Championship 2021 in Montenegro.

The Cabinet adopted the Semi-Annual Report on Public Procurement for the period from 1 January to 30 June 2021.