01/02/2016 Monitoring
The Monitoring Committee welcomed the many reforms instigated in Montenegro since the adoption in January 2015 of PACE Resolution 2030 (2015) on the electoral framework, the fight against corruption and the judiciary. However, while approving an information note prepared by the co-rapporteurs on post-monitoring dialogue with Montenegro, Terry Leyden (Ireland, ALDE) and Ionuț-Marian Stroe (Romania, EPP/CD), the Committee also emphasised that “the reform processes [needed] to be followed up to secure full implementation of the newly-adopted laws, so as to ensure their sustainability”.
In view of the ongoing political tensions deriving from the frustration felt following the previous elections, which were alleged to be unfair, the Committee encouraged “all political forces to re-engage in a constructive political dialogue” in order to overcome the crisis and to prevent it from escalating. In the parliamentarians’ view “boycotting the parliament [could] by no means be considered as a correct political stance”.
The Committee also asked the Montenegrin authorities to conduct a proper investigation into the violent incidents in Podgorica in October and November 2015 and take appropriate measures “to ensure that there [was] no impunity in cases of abuse of force by law enforcement officials”.
The information note, which was declassified by the Committee last Thursday, stems from a fact-finding visit to Podgorica by the co-rapporteurs on 17-19 November 2015.