Podgorica, 16 December 2010 – In early December the Government of Montenegro submitted a letter to the Parliament requesting that it adopt, via summary procedure, a decision on the Spatial Plan for Specific Purposes at Bjelasica and Komovi. The letter, signed by Prime Minister Milo Đukanović, explained that the justification for the expedited procedure is set out in the rationale of the Decision on the Plan.
The rationale states that the key justification for adopting the Plan by summary procedure is that if it is not adopted the planned area’s development will be slowed down in light of the fact that the next session of parliament is scheduled for March 2011.
This rationale leads one to conclude that someone in the Government is in a hurry to ensure that this Spatial Plan receives a green-light as quickly as possible, so that by next year the owners of the land in question can begin realizing their investments.
The Ministry of Spatial Planning already completed the public consultations on the Draft of the SPSP for Bjelasica and Komovi this past June. The Plan covers an area of about 850 square kilometers, or about 8% of the total territory of Montenegro. The plan includes the construction of several ski resorts, tourist accommodations and golf courses. Total investments foreseen by the Plan are projected at over a billion euros, with the planned employment of an unbelievable 14,000 people.
The Draft Plan was developed by a consortium of planning consultants, including the Republican Institute for Urban Planning and Design (RZUP), which is majority-owned by the prime minister’s brother, Aco Đukanović. It is interesting that Aco Đukanović also owns some 200,000 m2 of land in the Kolašin munipality.
In addition to Đukanović, the prime minister’s nephew Edin Kolarević owns over 45,000 m2 at Smrčje nearby, through the company known as ‘Bepplers&Partners Montenegro’ (which is backed by an eponymous company registered on the British Virgin Islands).
The company “Ski Resort – Kolasin 1450,” which is also backed by offshore companies on whose Board of Directors sits Kolašin’s Dragan Bećirović. Bećirović, incidentally, is another close friend of the Đukanović family. The company owns around 147,000 m2 in Jezerine near Kolašin.
Part of the region encompassed by the plan was until recently also owned by Ljubiša Šestović, brother-in-law of Minister Branimir Gvozdenović. However, he officially sold over 84,000 m2 of this land earlier in March for half the price that he bought it for.
Details on the contents of the plan have been known to the public only since yesterday, when the Ministry posted the Draft Plan on its website. This occurred even though the public consultations on this plan were completed last June and the report on these consultations has yet to be released.
We believe that it is absolutely necessary that members of the Montenegrin Parliament understand whose interests will be met by this Plan. It is also important that they understand the numerous conflicts of interests in the drafting of this plan and that mainly played-itself out along the Government-Planners-Owners axis (including members of the Đukanović family who are to be found at all three ends of this axis).
Dejan Milovac
Deputy Executive Director
Urban Development Programme Director
