COALITION EXPLOITS OPPOSITION BOYCOTT OF PARLIAMENT BEFORE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PODGORICA 000218

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON ELAB MW
SUBJECT: COALITION EXPLOITS OPPOSITION BOYCOTT OF PARLIAMENT BEFORE
SUMMER RECESS

REF: PODGORICA 203

PODGORICA 00000218 001.2 OF 002



1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Montenegro's Parliament wrapped up its latest
session on July 31, with the ruling Democratic Party of
Socialists (DPS) - Social Democratic Party (SDP) coalition
taking advantage of the opposition's ongoing boycott of plenary
meetings (reftel) to pass a raft of legislation before summer
recess. Since January 1, 2008, Parliament has adopted 78 bills,
over half of which were passed in last two weeks without
opposition participation. The final plenary meeting on July 31
produced a debate between the two main governing parties over
the draft Law on Concessions, which failed to garner enough
votes. END SUMMARY.





OPPOSITION-LESS PARLIAMENT EFFICIENT, SPEEDY

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2. (U) After convening only four times between April 1 and July
1, Parliament as a body met three times in the last two weeks.
Only deputies from the ruling DPS-SDP coalition, along with
those from the Bosniak Party and Democratic Union of Albanians,
attended these sessions. Opposition parties continued their
boycott to protest the decision by Public Radio and Television
of Montenegro (RCTG) to cease live broadcasts of all plenary
sessions (reftel).




3. (SBU) Coalition deputies took full advantage of the boycott,
pushing through legislation that would have prompted lengthy
debate had opposition MPs been present. In all, Parliament
passed 39 acts, including laws and decisions, during the three
July sessions with almost no discussion. The most important
items approved by Parliament included:



-- a new Labor Law, which has been in the works for almost five
years and which will increase the flexibility of the labor
market and decrease government involvement by establishing work
contracts, raising the minimum wage, and formalizing a social
dialogue on the law between unions, employers, and the
government;



-- the Law on Civil Servants (which, despite our discussions
with several DPS MPs, did not include amendments proposed by the
National Democratic Institute (NDI) which would have given more
authority to individual agencies to hire and promote employees);



-- a bill rebalancing the state budget; and



-- a new Law on Spacial Planning and Construction Objects, which
will simplify the process of obtaining construction licenses for
medium-sized buildings and ease the burden on the Ministry for
Economic Development by giving municipalities more authority to
issue such licenses.





MILIC ELECTED HEAD OF EU INTEGRATION COUNCIL

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4. (U) Coalition MPs also approved Socialist People's Party

(SNP) president Srdjan Milic as head of the new National Council
for EU Integration, an advisory body intended to coordinate and
monitor the implementation of the Stabilization and Association
Agreement (SAA) with the EU. DPS MP Mevludin Nuhodzic was
appointed deputy head. (Note: the Council consists of a head
and a deputy, six opposition members, the chairman and deputy of
the parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee, the chairmen of
other permanent committees, two members from the NGO sector, and
members nominated by the President of Montenegro and the
Councils of the University, Academy of Arts and Sciences,
Judiciary, and Prosecutor's Office.) The vote was the cause of
considerable contention among opposition parties, as Movement
for Change (PzP) leader Nejojsa Medojevic also was vying for the
slot.

PODGORICA 00000218 002.2 OF 002







LAW ON CONCESSIONS FAILS

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5. (U) The one discordant note for the coalition was its failure
to adopt the new Law on Concessions. In contrast to other laws,
DPS and SDP MPs hotly debated the length and value of
concessions as well as which body -- the Government or
Parliament -- should make these decisions. In the end, SDP
deputies walked out of the session, and the bill failed due to
lack of a quorum.




6. (SBU) Rasko Konjevic, SDP official and Chief of Staff to the
Speaker of Parliament, told us August 1 that his party was
concerned about government concessions for natural resources
(land, hydroelectric power, oil and gas reserves etc). The SDP
wanted to limit concessions to a maximum of 60 years (an initial
30-year term plus the possibility to extend for another 30) and
to have Parliament decide on investments above 150 million
Euros. The DPS argued for not specifying a term and for allowing
Parliament to decide on investments above 300 million Euros.





COMMENT

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7. (SBU) Coalition MPs -- working with machine-like efficiency
under the direction of DPS and SDP leadership -- took full
advantage of the opposition boycott to ram through a boatload of
bills with minimal, if any, discussion. Despite their boycott,
opposition deputies claimed that Speaker Krivokapic blindsided
them by adding dozens of items to plenary agendas just prior to
sessions. (Konjevic, however, explained to us that these
mushrooming agendas resulted from the work of parliamentary
committees which continued to approve motions for the agenda.)






8. (SBU) The dispute over the Law on Concessions reflects a
larger ideological rift between the coalition partners over the
state's role in the economy, particularly with regard to energy,
natural resources, and other strategic assets. The SDP
generally advocates that the GoM retain a controlling stake in
key state enterprises which are to be privatized. Last year, for
example, it blocked the DPS-sponsored privatization of the
thermoelectric plant in Pljevlja.
RMOORE