Centre for Civic Education (CCE) reminds that in mid-February, the Government adopted the Report on the Implementation of Obligations for 2024 from Montenegro’s EU Accession Program (PPCGEU) 2024-2027. At that time, the CCE already pointed out the discrepancies between the number of planned and fulfilled obligations in the data published by the Government in 2025 and those provided by the Ministry of European Affairs (MEP) to CCE in July 2024.
To recall, a total of 335 obligations were planned for the entire year of 2024, with 102 for the first half and 233 for the second half of 2024. The Government’s report maintains the same number for the first half but, through a “new calculation,” reduces the total number of obligations to 282, meaning that 53 obligations from the third and fourth quarters “disappeared,” artificially increasing the implementation rate. In the first part, the overall implementation rate was 49%, and CCE had already warned that it would be difficult to make up for the backlog in a period that carries a significantly larger number of obligations.
Where did these missing obligations go? Have they been transferred to the following year? If so, why was the public not informed? Is there a document proving that, for example, in August last year, changes were made to PPCGEU 2024-2027 regarding the correction of obligations for Q3 and Q4? Finally, why did these obligations magically disappear? These are some of the questions to which the Ministry of European Affairs, as well as the Government, have remained silent to this day.
A particular issue is the implementation dynamics of obligations in the third and fourth quarters, as well as their quality. However, it seems clear that even the race for statistics was unsuccessful, leading to an acrobatic maneuver in which 53 obligations disappeared. Moreover, analysis indicates that many institutions did not meet their obligations on time, although they were later presented as successfully completed. For example, CCE’s data for the first half of 2024 shows that the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation, the Ministry of Sports and Youth, the Customs Administration, and the Civil Aviation Agency did not fulfill a single obligations, while the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Tourism, Ecology, Sustainable Development, and the Development of the North, as well as the Ministry of Public Administration and the Ministry of Economic Development, completed less than half of their tasks. On the other hand, the Government’s report now states: “Looking at quarterly implementation, the highest level of implementation was achieved in the first quarter, when all planned obligations, 19 in total, were fully implemented. In the second quarter, the implementation rate was 84%“. However, comparing the half-year data received by CCE, signed by Minister Gorčević, it is evident that the implementation rate for the second quarter on a half-year basis was not 84%.
CCE has long warned about the lack of transparency in the Government’s work, especially regarding the closure of sessions to the public and limited engagement with the media. The example of the Report on the Implementation of Obligations for 2024 from the PPCGEU 2024-2027 illustrates the consequences of such practices – the oral information provided by the Minister of European Affairs during the Government sessions is obviously subject to manipulation at the final stage because the public is deprived of the opportunity to follow this process in real time. Consequently, reliance on official data becomes a slippery slope unless verified in multiple stages.
Beyond transparency issues, the inefficiency of the Government is also concerning. Despite having a record number of ministries, state secretaries, directorates, and departments, it fails to adequately fulfill its planned obligations. This points to a lack of capacity and expertise, as well as the consequences of party-based hiring, which continues to undermine administration and slow down reform processes. Of course, the responsibility does not lie solely with the administration but also with the highest state officials in various branches of government, particularly in political parties, which are increasingly positioning themselves as veto players in democratization and Europeanization.
Nikola Mirković, Programme Associate