Podgorica, (MINA) - Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said that he expects the process of establishing the Special Court for the fight against organized crime and corruption to begin after the closure of negotiation Chapters 23 and 24.

Spajic said this during a special parliamentary session dedicated to the Prime Minister’s Questions, replying to Socialist People’s Party MP Bogdan Bozovic, who asked when the formation of the Special Court can be expected.

Speaking about Chapter 23 (Judiciary and Fundamental Rights) and Chapter 24 (Justice, Freedom and Security), Spajic said that they are extremely demanding and that around 80 technical benchmarks must be met by June or July.

In his written reply to Bozovic, he stated that the Government’s Work Program plans to establish the Draft Law on the Special Court in the fourth quarter of this year.

“The very formation of that court and the appointment of new judges will represent a form of vetting in itself. Every judge who wants to be part of that system will have to pass special checks”, Spajic said.

He further added that those judges will have special working conditions and benefits.

Democrat MP Boris Bogdanovic asked if the government believes that the resistance to the amendments to the laws on internal affairs and the National Security Agency (ANB) is partly based on “the fact that for the first time they target the structures that have been protected from real responsibility in the police, ANB and related power centers for years”.

Spajic replied that “international partners, Interpol, Europol and others, assess that Montenegro has never had a better security sector and that they cooperate with Montenegrin institutions without any hesitation, without concern that confidential information will be shared with others”.

He said that the panic among certain individuals is quite noticeable.

Democratic People’s Party MP Milan Knezevic asked Spajic why the constitutional amendments did not include lifting of the immunity of MPs for in corruption cases, as well as more precise solutions related to the appointments in the prosecution and the judiciary.

Knezevic said that those amendments were introduced only because the EC requested it.

Spajic replied that this was not true and that the EC even suggested postponing such measures.

“The EC says that we are doing too many things at the moment and that they don’t have time to review everything. This is the will of this Government and the majority not to wait until the end of the mandate if we have hidden something, but to prosecute immediately in case of wrongdoings. I and all other ministers and DPMs should be held accountable if we act dishonorably”, Spajic said.