The Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities has called on Montenegro to reverse a trend to centralise local government and to improve consultation procedures, especially on financial matters, while providing adequate funding for municipalities.
In its recommendation based on a report by Cemal Bas (Türkiye, L, EPP/CCE) and Sören Schumacher (Germany, R, SOC/G/PD) following their 2023 visit to monitor implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government the Congress acknowledged strategic initiatives taken by Montenegro to reform the public administration, with a declared focus on decentralisation and digitalisation, such as the Public Administration Reform Strategy 2022-2026. It also welcomed the positive practice of minority language use in the execution of local public functions in municipalities where the majority of the population belongs to ethnic minorities, and the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro's right to apply directly to the Constitutional Court.
However, the rapporteurs expressed concerns about the overall trend towards recentralisation of local competencies, including in the essential area of spatial planning, and restricted financial autonomy at the local level. Smaller municipalities lacked the financial capacity to ensure the high-quality performance of their functions, while the share of tax revenue for most municipalities was diminished following the enactment of the 2021 Law on Personal Income Tax, also known as the “Europe Now” programme.
Furthermore, municipalities had to receive authorisation from the central level to perform some municipal functions and had little room to adapt local responsibilities to local needs due to an overregulation of competences – coupled with considerable shortcomings in the consultation process, including on financial matters and with regard to municipal boundary changes.
The Congress invited Montenegro to resume decentralisation efforts and pursue the declared local self-government reform in consultation with municipalities and the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro. In general, local authorities should be consulted systematically and effectively, particularly through the Union of Municipalities, on all matters that concern them, the Congress said. The rapporteurs also suggested strengthening local fiscal autonomy, ensuring that task assignments come with commensurate resources, and making sure that local authorities can exercise their own competences without ministerial approval.
Press contact: Tatiana Baeva-Frachon, Media Officer, Directorate of Communications, Council of Europe, tel. +33 6 85 11 64 93
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