The 50th Cabinet session – 9 December 2021

The Montenegrin Cabinet, at its 50th session held on 9 December 2021, chaired by Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić adopted an Action Plan to address key recommendations from the European Commission's Report on Montenegro 2021.

The Cabinet also adopted roadmaps for fulfilling the final benchmarks for the temporary closure of negotiations in Chapter 3 - Right of establishment and freedom to provide services, Chapter 7 - Intellectual property law, Chapter 14 - Transport policy, Chapter 15 - Energy, Chapter 21 - Trans-European Networks, Chapter 27 - Environment and Climate Change and Chapter 33 - Financial and Budgetary Provisions. These are documents prepared by the working groups for these chapters, which adequately address the remaining obligations from the negotiation process. All areas of the chapters are presented, with the remaining key challenges, recommendations from the European Commission's Report on Montenegro for 2021, as well as horizontal links with other chapters and clusters in relation to the revised negotiation methodology.

The Cabinet adopted an Action Plan for the implementation of the Judicial Reform Strategy 2019-2022. (for the period 2021-2022.). The Plan determines the activities, indicators of results and impact, deadlines, competent authorities and sources of funding required for the implementation of strategic guidelines defined by the Strategy. 117 activities are planned for the realization of strategic and operational goals. During the development of the Action Plan, the latest recommendations of relevant international reports were taken into account, so the planned activities were harmonised with these recommendations in order to improve the reform results in the most problematic areas. Also, activities from the previous period that were not implemented, as well as partially implemented activities, were incorporated into the new Action Plan, with appropriate result indicators and new deadlines for their implementation.

For the implementation of the Action Plan, it is necessary to provide 4,361,414.99 euros (of which 1,386,913 euros from the budget of the judiciary, the State Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Justice, Human and Minority Rights, and 2,974,501.99 euros from donor funds).

The Cabinet adopted the Draft Law on Electronic Document. The provisions of the new Law define that the integrity and authenticity of an electronic document, in addition to an electronic signature, can also be confirmed by an electronic seal. Also, the procedure for converting a document that is not in electronic form into a digitized document is prescribed, which as such can serve in the processes conducted by legal and natural persons and competent authorities, in terms of this law and is equal to an electronic document. The draft law defines the digitized document and the manner of digitization and certification of the digitized document, as well as communication between the competent authorities and the parties.

The Cabinet adopted the Draft Law on Ratification of the ILO Convention No. 190 on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work. The main reasons for adopting the Convention are the creation of a legal basis and the need to harmonise national legislation with ILO regulations, meeting the conditions for entering the international labour market and the expectation that more effective protection will be provided. The Convention harmonises the standards related to the protection of employees from violence and harassment, which complements and improves the situation in this area and provides decent working conditions, which Montenegro strives for.

The Decree on vitamins, minerals and other substances that can be added to food has been adopted.

The Cabinet adopted the Decree on technical and other conditions for the use of the information and communication network and the manner of managing that network. The goal of the Decree is the development of e-government services, as well as more efficient actions of bodies and other entities, which will result in providing better service to citizens and the economy. This Decree contributes to the further improvement of the legal framework in this area, so that the information and communication network of the authorities can be used conscientiously and responsibly, exclusively for official or business purposes. The tasks of the network administrator are clearly prescribed, through which the Ministry of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media manages the information and communication network, as well as the manner of protection against malicious programmes.

The Information on the improvement of air accessibility with the decisions on amendments to the decisions made by the Board of Directors of Airports of Montenegro Podgorica was adopted.

The Cabinet adopted the Information on the methodology of calculating tourist traffic and the development of a new information system and mobile application for monitoring parameters in tourism.

The Information on the formation of a digital transformation management system in accordance with the EU recommendation was adopted. The system, which above all implies the formation of a national coordination body at the social level, in order to improve the process of digital transformation of Montenegro, will be realized through activities defined in the Digital Transformation Strategy of Montenegro 2022-2026.

The Cabinet adopted the Information on the implementation of the internal Certification Body for the needs of state administration bodies. In the Government's work programme for 2021, the Ministry of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media has envisaged the digitalization of Montenegrin society, accessibility of public administration to citizens and the economy, through the provision of electronic trust services. In order to establish the said system, the Ministry conducted public procurement for the Implementation of a new internal Certification Body, including the procurement of equipment on which software management tools will be installed. Based on the conducted tender procedure, a Public Procurement Agreement with a total value of 399,879 was concluded.

The Information on the procurement of equipment for the Disaster Recovery site, primary data center for network and security, was adopted, as well as the Information on the conducted public procurement procedure for Microsoft licenses and authorization to sign the Enterprise Agreement for 2021.

The Cabinet adopted the Information on the analysis of the location "Landža" planned for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant in the municipality of Danilovgrad. The Information states that the Commission stated that the planned location is not adequate for this type of facility. The Commission considers that special attention must be paid to the Zeta Nature Park, because the disputed wastewater treatment plant covers an insignificant part of the wastewater of the Bjelopavlićka plain.

The Report on the implementation of the Action Plan of the Transport Development Strategy 2019-2035 for the period 2019-2020 was adopted, as well as the Action Plan for the period 2021-2022.

The Cabinet adopted the Information on the realization of the tender based on the Public Announcement for the tender in the open procedure for the realization of the Kotor - Lovćen cable car project, accepted the Draft Concession Agreement and adopted the Decision on granting the concession for the realization of the cable car project. The negotiations with the Consortium Novi Volvox and LEITNER AG / SpA regarding the construction of a cable car have been successfully completed. The total investment required for the implementation of this project is estimated at 20 million euros.

The Information on the improvement of regional road R-13 Bioče-Mateševo-Kolašin was adopted.