Chapter 15: Yugoslavia
Republic of Montenegro

(continued)

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Achievements

Although the process of implementation of these ideas was very ambitious at first, it later slowed down and was eventually delayed by the war, economic crisis and sanctions of the international community. Paradoxically, due to sanctions and economic crisis, around 70 percent of enterprises including polluters in Montenegro do not work at full capacity, so there is a lack of objective insight into the condition of environmental protection.

However, together with a partial stabilization of the situation, there has also been an improvement in this sphere: in 1996, the Law on Environmental Protection was passed providing for a number of institutes referring to access to environmental information and public participation in environmental decisionmaking, but there is a delay in the adoption of subordinate regulations without which provisions of this law cannot be implemented. One subordinate regulation in this sphere passed after coming into force of the Law on Environmental Protection is the EIA Decree of 1997.

During the last couple of years, environmental protection is a topic very frequently discussed, and environmental issues are present in the media so that aside from frequent articles in the state daily papers and programs both on the state television and on private channels, a number of magazines dealing with ecology have also been founded (such as "Eko sat", "Plima", etc.), and there is even a private ecological radio station in Pljevlja. Also, many NGOs have been founded. Unfortunately, the public knows nothing of their work.

Taking into account the inherited situation, raising environmental conscience is a good step in the process of involving the citizenry in environmental issues - the concrete results are yet to come.

Problems

In spite of considerable legislative activities during the past two years, there has been no sufficient improvement in the sphere of public participation in environmental decisionmaking. For example, the lack of access to information cannot be compensated for by the Public Information Law having only one very general provision about the right of citizens to be informed and participate in public information (Article 4/1993). In addition, the draft of the new Public Information Law contains no innovations in this respect. A common feature of all these new regulations is that even when they do consider the role of a citizen, they do not provide for special instruments for the implementation and protection of these rights. Also, there are no elaborated subordinate enactments that would deal with a certain segment of environmental protection. Even when they do contain a provision referring to public participation, it is usually general and imprecise (which is the case with the EIA Decree).

All this is still not a problem since initiatives of citizens are more an exception than a rule, and there is no tradition in this society of the involvement of individuals and NGOs with the process of decisionmaking.

Needs

• first of all, it is necessary to further popularize environmental issues and, bearing in mind the fact that ecology is one of the basic starting points of the development of the Republic of Montenegro, it could be a good idea to introduce environmental education as early as in the pre-school period;
• with the purpose of improving the present situation, the current penal provisions should be strictly implemented and made more severe, and the number of inspectors working in the field should be increased;
• establish tax and duty relief for the products of those enterprises who through the use of environment-friendly technology take great care of environmental protection;
• found a specialized institution for monitoring the condition of the environment;
• insist on broader interpretation of existing regulations that, even indirectly, promote public participation;
• initiate passing of regulations that would guarantee a more active public participation in decisionmaking, not only in the sphere of environmental protection (the bill of the Access to Information Act would be a good way to start this);
• a more aggressive action of individuals and NGOs should be encouraged with the purpose of more active participation in the legislative procedure on all levels (local, regional, republic and federal);
• with the financial aid of foreign NGOs, nongovernmental information bureaus should be founded that would gather and classify information on the condition of the environment and inform the public about it;
• organize nongovernmental legal advisory services for public;
• enable better quality public information on the operation of polluting enterprises;
• initiate the foundation of the institute of ombudsman.