Podgorica, (MINA) – The Draft Law on the Government does not resolve the key problems in the functioning of the executive power and leaves wide room for political bargaining and abuse, which is why it should not be adopted in its current version, according to Nikola Mirkovic, program associate at the Center for Civic Education (CGO).

At the session of February 19, the Government of Montenegro adopted the Draft Law on the Government, which is in the parliamentary procedure and regulates issues related to the composition of the Government, its mandate, organization, mode of operation, decision-making and relations with other state bodies.

Mirkovic said that it is good that after so many years, Montenegro finally has a Draft Law on the Government in the parliamentary procedure, noting that the country clearly needs a systemic law regulating the work of the executive branch.

“However, in this current verion, the Draft represents a serious step backwards compared to earlier versions and does not correspond to the real needs of the state system”, said Mirkovic in an interview with the MINA News Agency.

He assessed that the proposed legislation does not resolve the key problems in the functioning of the Government, leaves wide room for political bargaining and abuse, as well as misses the opportunity to clearly define the structure, functioning and responsibility of the executive branch.

“For this reason, it should not be adopted in this current version, but in the given constellation of political forces, it is difficult to imagine that there will be necessary significant changes during the parliamentary procedure”, said Mirkovic.

According to him, the final draft of the law is very far from the original idea, but also from earlier drafts prepared during the process of drafting the act.

“More importantly, it is far from the essential needs of the public interest that this law was supposed to address and appears to be tailored for particular and party interests”, Mirkovic said.

As he stated, the impression is that the political actors are not interested in adopting a high-quality and systemic law that would limit the space for continuous political bargaining over the structure of government.

Asked to comment on the decision to abandon the provisions defining the upper limit of the number of government departments, he said that this is one of the most problematic aspects of this Bill.

The proposed law foresees the possibility of holding telephone sessions, but it does not specify what is constitutes an “emergency” that would justify such a decision-making method. Asked how he views this solution, Mirkovic said that it is problematic, because it leaves too much room for arbitrary interpretation.

When asked if the draft law should have defined the work of the Government in the technical mandate, in terms of limiting its powers, he replied that this, together with the organizational structure of the Government, was one of the key issues that the law had to clearly regulate.

As Mirkovic added, although the Venice Commission noted that strictly limiting the work of the Government in the technical mandate could be in conflict with the Constitution, the political reality in Montenegro shows that relying on political culture and “good democratic practices” is not sufficient.