The representative of MANS, Vuk Maras, was removed from the Working Group for Chapter 23 by unilateral decision of the Minister of European Affairs Aleksandar Andrija Pejovic. We believe that this as an obvious intention to marginalize the topic of the fight against corruption in this chapter in a most brutal manner. Despite the fact that the working group for Chapter 23 does not have any representatives of non-governmental organizations that have nearly as much experience when it comes to the fight against corruption, Minister Pejovic decided that MANS should not be part of the working group.
In early February, the Ministry of European Affairs issued a public call for NGOs to nominate members to the working group for Chapter 23, and shortly after made a list of four representatives of non-governmental organizations that had applied for this working group, among whom was the representative of MANS. Almost two months after having published the list, the government finally adopted the decision on the appointment of members, stating that the MANS representative had been elected to the working group. Shortly thereafter, at the proposal of Minister Aleksandar Andrija Pejovic, the decision was amended, and Vuk Maras was excluded and replaced by Jovana Marovic, a representative of another non-governmental organization. This was done without a written or any other explanation.
Minister Pejovic is well informed on the MANS’s credibility, of our results so far in the fight against corruption at the highest level and all those areas that the European Commission marked as particularly vulnerable to corruption in its documents on Montenegro. Pejovic is well aware that there is no NGO in the country, nor any state institution for that matter, that has a more intense interaction with the prosecutorial organization, nor is there any institution in the country that has filed criminal complaints, made case studies and investigative texts on corruption in urban planning, public procurement, privatization, energy, local governance, conflict of interest and illicit enrichment, electoral malpractices and political corruption.
Although we are aware that these results do not qualify MANS and its representative for work in a group made in accordance with Pejovic and his superiors’ “recipe”, it will be interesting to hear how the minister will justify this decision, particularly before the international public.
The government has so far repeatedly demonstrated how it relates to the work of the working group and hence we understand that Pejovic does not want to involve a representative of MANS in its work because it would be the end of feigned data on the implementation of reforms, especially those related to the fight against the grand corruption.
Finally, what is mostly concerning is the fact that it is the Minister of European Affairs and Chief Negotiator with the European Union, who has proved, with his unlawful conduct, that he has not learned much about European values. He has not learned about the need to provide the results of reforms that Montenegro has been implementing for years conducted in order to joining the European Union, through institutional dialogue and cooperation.
Due to the fact that Pejovic completely illegally, without any criteria and justification, at the session of the government, removed the only representative of MANS from the working group, we will file a complaint against this decision and ask the Administrative Court to ensure lawful conduct of the Ministry of European Affairs and the Government of Montenegro.
MANS
