The Law on Spatial Planning and Construction of Buildings has become a subject of free trade behind closed doors, with the complete exclusion of experts and the public. Therefore, it has to be withdrawn from the procedure and returned to a public hearing in order to let local governments clarify their opinion on what the Parliament of Montenegro decided behind their back.
Everything that has happened in the last few days in connection with the adoption of this Law is in favor of the suspicions that someone in the government has a direct interest in bringing the controversial provisions of the law into practice. Also, the behavior of Minister Pavle Radulovic shows that he is highly motivated be transfer the complete decision-making process for any facility that is to be built or legalized in Montenegro in the future from the municipalities to himself.
From the very beginning of amending this law, through the public debate, until the replacement of the text that was in the public debate with the text written in the government’s Cabinet, Minister Radulovic did everything to deceive the public in relation to what its true nature is.
There is no doubt that this is an attempt of a brutal centralization of the spatial planning system, which, if such a law is adopted, will becomes even more vulnerable to corruption. Moreover, all those who have the intention to devastate space in such a way will have only one person to address from now – Minister Pavle Radulovic’s Cabinet.
Although we can assume that Minister Radulovic is excited by the fact that he will suddenly get almost unlimited power in deciding when planning is in question, we remind that he is nevertheless obligated to act in accordance with the public interest. Such behavior certainly does not imply a fiery commitment to solutions that are written for the construction lobby or whomever he promised to pass this law.
In any document published by the European Commission so far, regarding the assessment of Montenegro’s progress towards the EU, the spatial planning system has been characterized as particularly vulnerable to corruption, and the need to significantly increase transparency in that area is also suggested. Completely contrary to the EU’s recommendations, the Government plans to pass a law that not only will not reduce corruption, but will be directly stimulating it through the centralization of decision-making.
We also believe that the Parliament should not be turned into a flea market, where instead of a serious debate, private and partisan interests are traded, and the law itself is used to achieve goals that have little to do with spatial planning or with public interest.
That is why we think that not only Minister Radulovic, but also other “negotiators” in Ivan Brajovic’s cabinet are obliged to explain to the citizens of Montenegro what kind of “trade” they are doing behind closed doors and what the price of reaching agreement on the law will be.
Dejan Milovac
MANS Investigation Center Director
