GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO
Duško Marković, Prime Minister
Ministry of European Affairs
Aleksandar Andrija Pejović, Minister
Podgorica, 11/5/2017
Dear Mr Marković,
Dear Mr Pejović,
We are addressing you concerning the recent decision which was adopted by the Government of Montenegro, namely to leave out Vuk Maraš, representative of NGO MANS, from the Working group for the preparation and conduct of negotiations for Chapter 23 – Judiciary and Fundamental rights.
Upon looking into the Decision on the amendment of decision on the Formation of Working group for the preparation and conduct of negotiations on the accession of Montenegro to European Un-ion for the area of legal acqui related to negotiating Chapter 23 – Judiciary and Fundamental rights, we have been informed that the Government passed a conclusion on 13 April 2017, based on which Vuk Maraš was excluded from the Decision proposal.
It is the obligation of Government of Montenegro to conduct accession negotiation process with EU in transparent manner, as well as to make room for an adequate participation of civic sector. In that respect, it is our duty, as representatives of NGO sector, to contribute to transparency of that process. We believe that this is not possible if such decisions are made regardless of procedures and without any explanation.
Hence, we urge that you inform the public on reasons for leaving out the candidate of MANS from the membership in Working group for the monitoring of implementation of measures from Action plan for Chapter 23, to review that decision and appoint him as member of Working group based on the amendment of Conclusion 07-931, in order to continue the cooperation with civic sector in line with democratic principles for which you have publically advocated.
Respectfully,
Maja Raičević, Executive director, Women’s Rights Center
Stevo Muk, President of MB, Institute Alternative
Daliborka Uljarević, Executive director, Centre for Civic Education (CCE)
Ana Novaković, Executive director, Centre for Development of NGOs (CDNGO)