The 10th Cabinet session – 1 July 2022

The Montenegrin Cabinet, at today's tenth session chaired by Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, adopted the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Payment Transactions. The aforementioned Law created the preconditions for the further development of payment transactions in Montenegro in accordance with modern standards in the European Union and the world. As one of the basic assumptions of the efficient functioning of a country's financial system is safe and efficient payment transactions, the adoption of this Law creates the prerequisites for the improvement of the regulatory framework, which will have a positive effect on the accession negotiations for Chapter 4 - Free movement of capital, promoting competition in the market for payment services, and enabling the further development of innovative mobile and internet payment transactions.

The Cabinet adopted a Decision amending the Decision on reducing the amount of excise duty for the sale of unleaded gasoline and gas oils. The decision extends the deadline for applying reduced amounts of excise duty for unleaded gasoline and gas oils by 50% until 30 August 2022. It was noted that this contributes to the stabilisation of the prices of petroleum products, as well as to the protection of living standards.

The Cabinet adopted the Consolidated Report on Management and Internal Controls in Public Sector of Montenegro for 2021.

The Cabinet adopted the Information on the proposal to appoint a National Authorising Officer responsible for the financial management of IPA programmes and the efficient functioning of the internal control system and a National IPA Coordinator responsible for strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation of pre-accession support programmes. The Cabinet appointed Mila Kasalica as National Authorising Officer and Aleksandar Mašković as National IPA Coordinator.

The Information on activities on the implementation of projects in the field of energy efficiency for the period January 2022 - June 2022 was adopted.

The Cabinet adopted the Second Annex to the European Commission's Report on Montenegro for 2022. The Annex covers the reporting period from 20 March 2022 to 6 June 2022.

The Annex to the Report is prepared and submitted twice a year, which formally informs the European Commission about the overall activities that are carried out as part of the accession process.

The structure of the Annex follows the concept of the last European Commission Report for Montenegro for 2021, in such a way that it is aligned with the revised EU enlargement methodology and the cluster approach that groups related chapters into six thematic units.

The Cabinet adopted the Information on the need to sign the Protocol to the North Atlantic Treaty on the Accession of the Republic of Finland and the Protocol to the North Atlantic Treaty on the Accession of the Kingdom of Sweden and accepted the texts of the accession protocol. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is tasked with, upon receiving the signed accession protocols, preparing draft laws on the confirmation of the accession protocols of the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden and sending them to the Government for further procedure.