The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) published recently its Second Compliance Report of Fourth Evaluation Round on Montenegro (on Corruption prevention in respect of members of parliament, judges and prosecutors Montenegro), as adopted by GRECO at its 84th Plenary Meeting (Strasbourg, 2-6 December 2019), with the authorisation of the authorities of Montenegro.

The Second Compliance Report assesses the measures taken by the authorities of Montenegro to implement the recommendations issued in the Fourth Round Evaluation Report on Montenegro. GRECO’s Fourth Evaluation Round deals with “Corruption prevention in respect of members of parliament, judges and prosecutors”.

It is recalled that GRECO addressed 11 recommendations to Montenegro in its Evaluation Report

For example, GRECO recommended:

1. GRECO recommended ensuring there is a mechanism both to promote the Code of Ethics for parliamentarians and raise their awareness as regards the standards expected from them and enforcing such standards where necessary.

The authorities of Montenegro now report that a new Code of Ethics was adopted in July 2019 and published in the Official Gazette on 7 August 2019.

As regards the awareness and training of parliamentarians on the ethical rules, they point out that the Code introduces compulsory annual training plans for the parliamentarians. The plans are prepared by the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms. Trainings are conducted namely by the Agency for Prevention of Corruption, which prepares the training materials. Furthermore, they indicate that on 18 October 2018 parliamentarians participated in a training course on “Ethical standards, good conduct and prevention of conflicts of interest”, which followed previous courses on similar issues.

2. GRECO recommends that a requirement of ad-hoc disclosure be introduced when a conflict emerges between the private interests of individual members of parliament and a matter under consideration in parliamentary proceedings.

The authorities of Montenegro now indicate that the new Code of Ethics was adopted in July 2019. Conflicts of interest are defined in Article 7 of the Law N° 53/14 and 42/17 on Prevention on Corruption; they are assessed and addressed by the Agency for Prevention of Corruption. According the new Code, a parliamentarian who takes part in a discussion where he/she, or a person related to him/her, has a private interest shall give a statement to the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms before taking part in the discussion and before taking part in the vote.

3. GRECO recommended (a) taking additional measures to strengthen the Judicial Council’s independence – both real and perceived – against undue political influence, including by abolishing the ex-officio participation of the Minister of Justice in the Council, by providing for no less than half of the Council’s membership to be composed of judges who are elected by their peers and by ensuring that the presiding function is given to one of those judicial members; (b) establishing objective and measurable selection criteria for non-judicial members which would endorse their professional qualities and impartiality; and (c) setting in place operational arrangements to avoid an over-concentration of powers in the same hands concerning the different functions to be performed by members of the Judicial Council.

The authorities of Montenegro reiterate that, as there has been no changes to the constitutional framework, the composition of the Judicial Council has not been modified. At the end of the term of office of the ten-member Judicial Council, on 2 July 2018, the four judge members were replaced by four other judges. The Minister of Justice remains an ex officio member, the judges elected by their peers remain a minority within the Council, and the President of the Council is elected among the members who are not holders of judicial office (not the Minister) by a two-thirds majority of the members of the Judicial Council. The authorities stress that half of the members of the Judicial Council are judges, including the President of the Supreme Court (ex officio member).

As regards the second part of the recommendation, the authorities explain that no selection criteria have been established for non-judicial members of the Council. They also report that the non-judicial members of the Judicial Council have not been replaced, following the end of their term of office on 2 July 2018, as the required two-thirds parliamentary majority has not been reached for this replacement. Therefore, the Law on Judicial Council and Judges has been amended so that the President of the Council and the members can continue their functions until official appointment of the new members. This explains why the interim President of the Council was elected on 4 July 2018 among the four non-judicial “eminent lawyers”.

Regarding the third part of the recommendation, the authorities indicate that all eight commissions of the Council are composed, according to the law, of at least one of the ten Council members, which implies that each member has a seat in various commissions. They stress that the conclusions of the commissions are always forwarded to the Judicial Council for a final decision.

The report presented evaluations of other measures taken by the Montenegrin authorities in accordance with the recommendations of GRECO.

In conclusion Greco GRECO said that Montenegro has implemented satisfactorily eight out of the eleven recommendations contained in the Fourth Round Evaluation Report. Of the remaining recommendations, one has been partly implemented and two have not been implemented.