(Podgorica, 26 February 2013) – The Administrative Court of Montenegro has decided to annul the decision of the RAE from 16.12.2011 in which it illegally allowed the country’s energy companies to earn a greater share of profits. The measures lasted for the entirety of 2012, triggering a significant increase in the price of electric energy. The same ruling also mandates that the RAE compensate the plaintiffs – a group of citizens from MANS – the costs of the proceedings worth €1,950.
The Administrative Court established that the RAE’s decision violated procedural rules, as well as wrongly determined the factual state and wrongly applied the Energy Law. The Court established that it is unclear how the RAE established the costs of imports/exports, that the RAE retroactively applied the order on the basis of which it adopted a decision that would give an advantage to the EPCG and that it didn’t back its decision with relevant documentation.
This decision by the Administrative Court confirms that the members of the RAE, for suspect and to everyone unknown reasons, has for years been taking decisions to the benefit of the EPCG and at the expense of Montenegro’s citizens. We would like to remind readers that this is only the latest in a long line of judicial rulings that confirm the more than reasonable suspicions of the public that members of the RAE are abusing their position and are thereby enabling the EPCG to profit illegally, while imposing on citizens material costs through the illegal increase of the price of electricity.
In a state of law, prosecutors would have investigated the RAE’s behaviour a long time ago, especially after the numerous judicial rulings that indicate that the RAE’s members persist in violating the law and that not even court decisions will stop them from doing as they please. Unfortunately, it is more realistic to expect the Chief State Prosecutor Ms. Carapic will decide that the dealings of the RAE lack the character of a criminal act and that the institution only employs proper and moral individuals for whom the laws of Montenegro do not apply.
