VZCZCXRO5666
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHPOD #0218/01 2341241
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 211241Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY PODGORICA
INFO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0915
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHPOD/AMEMBASSY PODGORICA 1000

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 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶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 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶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 
 
------------------------ 
 
¶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 
 
------- 
 
¶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