Montenegro has made considerable progress in priority areas in the rule of law, confirming success in the implementation of reforms. Apart from positive remarks, Non paper detects some weaknesses of the system and directs reforms further, it was stated at the press conference on the occasion of presenting Unofficial working document on the situation chapters 23 and 24.
Main negotiator with the EU, Mr Aleksandar Drljević, pointed out that today’s Non-paper has shown that Montenegro has made progress in priority areas of the rule of law.
„When it comes to Chapter 23 ,the document confirms that Montenegro has continued to produce positive results, especially visible in the part of the reduction of pending court cases, new inquiries in corruption cases, as well as temporary and permanent confiscation of property”, Mr Drljević said.
Progress has been made in the area of freedom of expression and new results have been recorded in the inquiries on cases of attacks on the media property.
“In Chapter 24, we have made significant progress in the area of human trafficking and additional results in the fight against money laundering”, Mr Drljević said.
He thinks that Montenegro is faced with more intense phase of the negotiation process, fulfillment of temporary criteria and finishing criteria in chapters 23 and 24.
Negotiator for Chapter 23 and 24, Ms Marijana Laković, stressed that the Report is positive and contains no surprises.
“In the judicial area, Montenegrin efforts put in reducing number of backlog of court cases, bringing that number from 150.000 in 2016 to around 2.500 at the end of 2019”, Ms Laković said.
She also highlighted positive remarks in the part of the reorganization of Police Department which had an impact on the more clear command line within Sector for fight against organized crime and corruption.
Ms Laković pointed at results achieved in fight against human trafficking.
She added that there was awareness of the challenges that still left some questions open and that many of them depended on political criteria.
Chief State Prosecutor, Mr Milivoje Katnić, pointed out that in five years Special State Prosecutor’s Office had issued 128 orders for investigation on 991 physical persons and 270 legal entities.
