Press release from 43rd Cabinet session

The Montenegrin Cabinet, at its 43rd session held on 14 October 2021, chaired by Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić, adopted the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Consumer Protection. The main reason for amending the law is the need to harmonise it with European law, through more precise determination of certain legal provisions, in order to eliminate minor linguistic and/or legal-technical inaccuracies in the adoption of consumer directives, detected during the intensive negotiation process with the European Commission under Chapter 28 - Consumer and health protection, as part of an officially accepted request for the temporary closure of this chapter.

The Decision on the formation of the European Integration Committe was adopted.

The Cabinet adopted the Strategy for Improving Public Procurement and Public-Private Partnership Policy for the Period 2021-2025 with the Action Plan for the Period July 2021 - December 2022. The main goal of the National Strategy is to build a sustainable, effective and efficient system of public procurement and public-private partnership. In addition to the above, the planned activities should enable the establishment of a public-private partnership policy, in order to create all the preconditions for new projects that can be implemented according to this model. The strategy includes chapters addressing the main issues, challenges and risks identified in the public procurement system, priority areas for public procurement reform and priority areas for public-private partnerships. The total funds envisaged by the Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategy for the period half of 2021 - end of 2022 amount to EUR 439,900.00, of which EUR 30,900.00 are budget funds, while EUR 409,000.00 is planned to be provided through international sources of financing.

The Programme for the Development of Health Tourism of Montenegro 2021 - 2023 with the Action Plan until 2023, as well as the Plan for the preparation of the winter tourist season 2021/2022 were adopted. 

The Cabinet adopted the Information on activities for the implementation of priority projects in the field of tourism, for the period January - June 2021.

The Cabinet adopted the Information on the Establishment of a Digital Learning Platform - ILIAS. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) provides support in the implementation of the project "Support to the process of digitisation of EU training in public administration in the Western Balkans", which aims to improve digitisation and connectivity in public administration, develop common standards and improve the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU in this area. In order to achieve the goals of this project, Montenegro is enabled to use the use ILIAS platform (Integrated learning, information and work cooperation system). It is a web application that provides the infrastructure for organising and implementing training programmes, as well as enabling both digital and hybrid learning. It is one of the most widely used learning platforms in the world at colleges, companies and administration. Installation and use of the ILIAS platform is provided, free of charge, on the server of the Ministry of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media. The ILIAS Learning and Communication Platform will be used at the public administration level to improve the knowledge and skills of civil servants and to communicate within organised groups all with the aim of improving the organisation and way of working.

The Information on the construction of the facility for the needs of state bodies within the project "Improving energy efficiency in public buildings" was adopted, all in accordance with the Loan Agreement, Grant Agreement and Special Agreement, signed between KfW Bank and the Government of Montenegro. The Information states that the new facility for the needs of state bodies will be built in accordance with a high standard of energy efficiency (zero-energy buildings or Energy-Plus Buildings). For the purpose of defining the technical characteristics of the building and preparing the input data for the public architectural competition, the Fraunhofer IBF Institute was hired, through a contract financed from an additional grant, provided by KfW Bank. The planned area of the facility is from 5000 - 8000 m2, which will be defined after the preparation of the conceptual design, depending on the available budget. The planned budget for this purpose is 16 million euros, of which 12 million will be provided from the project funds, and 4 million from the budget of Montenegro.

The Cabinet adopted the Information on the request of the Atlantic Council of Montenegro sent to the Government of Montenegro for the continuation of the partnership and financial and logistical assistance for the organisation of the 11th To Be Secure Forum, which will be held in Budva on 15 October 2021. The 2BS Forum was recognised as one of the most important events in Southeast Europe dedicated to the security challenges of the modern age. Also, the Forum is a useful platform for further promotion of the interests and goals of Montenegro, its role in the region and efforts within the European and Euro-Atlantic community. On that occasion, the text of the Agreement on Business Cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence and the Atlantic Council was accepted, in order to meet the preconditions for payment of financial support to the Atlantic Council in the amount of EUR 15,000.00.