The 37th Cabinet session – 20 January 2023

The Montenegrin Cabinet, at its 37^th session chaired by Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, adopted the Information regarding the allocation of direct budget support from the European Commission to Montenegro for overcoming the energy crisis. As part of the support package, the EC allocated 30 million euros to Montenegro.

The Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office was adopted. Amendments to the Law were made at the initiative of the Prosecutor's Council, with the aim of improving the legal provisions related to the termination of the mandate of the Supreme State Prosecutor and the appointment of the Acting Supreme State Prosecutor. According to the valid legal decision, the Acting Supreme State Prosecutor is appointed for a period of 6 months, and in the event that the Supreme State Prosecutor is not elected within 6 months, the same person may be determined as Acting Supreme State Prosecutor for another six months. The proposed solution envisages the amendment of Article 48 paragraph 6 of the current law, in such a way that in the event that the Supreme State Prosecutor is not elected within six months, the same person may be determined as Acting Supreme State Prosecutor until the election of the Supreme State Prosecutor.

The Cabinet adopted the Economic Reform Programme for the period 2023-2025 (ERP 2023).

The Cabinet adopted the Decision on the introduction of international restrictive measures determined by the decisions of the European Council 2019/797/CFSP of 17 May 2019, 2020/651/CFSP of 14 May 2020, 2020/1127/CFSP of 30 July 2020, 2020/1537/CFSP if 22 October 2020, 2020/1748/CFSP of 20 November 2020, 2021/796/CFSP of 17 May 2021 and 2022/754/CFSP of 16 May 2022 against cyber attacks threatening the Union or its Member States.

The Cabinet adopted the Decision on the formation of the Negotiating Working Group for the Chapter 27 - Environment and Climate Change.

The Cabinet adopted the Decision on the publication of the Agreement between the European Union and Montenegro on Montenegro's participation in "Fiscalis", the EU Programme for cooperation in the field of taxation.

The Cabinet adopted the Information on the process of establishing the Montenegro SDG Acceleration Fund and the Government's financial contribution to the Fund. The Fund is a pooled fund mechanism that aims to accelerate implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Montenegro, as well as to support the country's EU accession process. The fund will provide catalytic support to priority areas in line with the National Strategy for Sustainable Development, Programme of Accession of Montenegro to the European Union and the forthcoming UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2023-2027. Additional benefits that the Acceleration Fund will yield are related to achieving synergies of participating UN Organisations and thus support in country implementation of the UN Reform. The Ministry of Finance is tasked with providing 200,000 euros from the Current Budget Reserve for the financing of the Fund for 2023.

The Cabinet adopted the Information on the proposal to appoint a National Certification Officer responsible for financial management of IPA programmes and 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 Ana Raičević, Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, as the National Certification Officer, responsible for the financial management of IPA programmes and the efficient functioning of the internal control system, and Milena Žižić, State Secretary at the Ministry of European Affairs, as the National IPA Coordinator, responsible for strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation of pre-accession support programmes.

The Cabinet adopted the Information on the implementation activities of the Special investment programme of special importance for the business and economic interests of Montenegro, which ended on 31 December 2022.

Full press release in Montenegrin is available here.