(Podogrica, 11 June 2012) – The Citizens’ Front will soon begin with the gathering citizens’ signatures in the hopes of defeating the “euro by euro” tax law, in order to put pressure on the Constitutional Court to immediately rule in favor of the public interest.
Veselin Radulović a lawyer with the Citizens’ Front today submitted an initiative asking for a ruling on the constitutionality of law. Tomorrow at 17h, in front of the Constitutional Court members of the Citizens’ Front will sign the initiative and launch their campaign of collecting signatures in all Montenegrin cities.
The citizens’ are no longer willing to subsidize the debts of the Russian owner of the aluminum plant (KAP), which is one of the main causes that the new “euro by euro” law has been imposed. We are expecting that the citizens support for this initiative will enable the Constitutional Court to urgently rule upon and prioritize this question.
Unfortunately, the Court’s practice to date has generally meant that it has failed to prioritize those initiatives that relate to the socio-economic interests of the citizens at large, with many such initiatives still being kept at the bottom of its priorities for years.
The fact that this high court has generally prioritized the interests of those connected to the First Family, instead of the citizens, is demonstrated by MANS’ recent effort to question the Regulatory Agency for Energy’s (RAE) methodology that was used to establish an increase in electricity prices.
This initiative was launched in early April, since the RAE self-initiated a new stance related to electricity bills that was meant to further subsidize the investments of our ‘strategic partners’ from Italy (A2A and Terna). These measures were contrary to the Law on Energy and the constitutional provision mandating that the state protect the consumer.
Besides the fact that the RAE is expected to adopt another electricity price increase by the middle of July, which will be based precisely on the methodology that we have contested, the Constitutional Court has yet to make a ruling on this question.
In the files of the court one can also find numerous other initiatives submitted by MANS that are awaiting judicial consideration, as well as numerous other initiatives by citizens interested in defending the public interest.
We don’t have the time to wait for months on end as the Constitutional Court weighs its decisions, since the bills will come due before its rulings. Similarly, previous experience has demonstrated that money that has been taken from citizens contrary to the constitution, as was the case with commercial losses on the electric distribution network (or the theft that we’d been subsidizing for years), was never reimbursed.
We expect that the support of citizens for this initiative, by those who do not want to pay the debts of tycoons and don’t want to give another euro for various kickbacks, will help put pressure on the Constitutional Court to make a ruling on this mater that meets the public interest.
