SUPREME COURT CONTINUES TO THREATEN EUROPEAN INTEGRATION OF MONTENEGRO
The fact that the Supreme Court once again failed to approve nomination for the election of its own President shows the highest judicial institution of Montenegro is not ready for European integration.
The election of the President of the Supreme Court is the interim benchmark, which fulfilment is essential for obtaining a positive report on Montenegro’s progress in the process of European integration (IBAR).
For this reason, even the European Commission and the United States of America recently appealed to the Supreme Court to respond to the task and find a way to approve a nomination for election of its own President.
However, the eighth competition for this post since the end of 2020, when the former long-term President Vesna Medenica resigned, failed today.
Since September 2021, the Acting President of the Supreme Court has been Mrs. Vesna Vučković, who did not do enough to provide conditions for the approval of the nomination of a candidate for the President of the Supreme Court.
Vučković failed to timely specify the election rules on how to establish a two thirds majority and whether a candidate from the Supreme Court is allowed to vote or not, and to ensure that the Supreme Court does not engage in any new voting before this is done. She did not ensure a timely amendment to the Rules of Procedure of the General Session of the Supreme Court, despite the fact that the Judicial Council expressly recommended it to her on 19 January 2023, and although she herself confirmed the need for this to be done at the General Session of the Supreme Court held on 15 March 2024, as evidenced by the documents provided below.
Furthermore, as the head of a collective body that needed to elect its president, Vučković was expected to motivate the collective to carry out that task. Instead, we are witnessing yet another failure, while five judges of that Court once again decided to not even participate in the vote.
Sixteen out of 17 judges voted at today’s General Session, because the Supreme Court judge Ana Vuković, a candidate in the competition, did not exercise her right to vote (presumably in order to be fair to the other candidate who could not vote as a non-member of the Supreme Court).
Six judges voted for Vuković, and five for Miodrag Pešić, President of the Administrative Court. There were five invalid ballots indicating that five judges obstructed the process.
The Supreme Court had the opportunity today to vote for judicial reform; instead, it voted for the status quo, i.e. the indefinite acting status of Mrs. Vučković! Unfortunately, this seriously jeopardises the European integration process of Montenegro.
