The Prosecutorial Council should not operate in incomplete composition, without representatives of state prosecutors of all levels, because decisions made without the three missing members would be of disputed legitimacy, although formally legally valid.

The Prosecutorial Council has ahead of itself responsible reform duties – to adopt new Rules of Procedure, to decide on the number of prosecutors to be called for through an open competition, within 20 days from its formation, as well as to conduct the election of prosecutors and heads of the state prosecution departments.

We hope that the Conference of State Prosecutors will, as soon as possible, elect the three missing members of the Council from its members who previously did not have the chance to influence the operation of the Council and thus improve the confidence of citizens in the state prosecution office.

Misunderstandings about the election of the Prosecutorial Council could have been prevented by timely development of more specific constitutional and relevant legal provisions, rather than resolving such important issues hastily and without a public debate.

BACKGROUND: Following the decision of the Conference of State Prosecutors to elect as members of the Prosecutorial Council persons who had previously been members of the Council in one or two mandates, contrary to the Law on State Prosecutor’s Office, NGO Human Rights Action appealed to the President of Montenegro not to declare such a composition of the Council. President Vujanović first announced that he will not declare the composition of the Prosecutorial Council until new members are elected, due to the mentioned members being elected contrary to the law. However, he later decided to partially declare the composition of the Prosecutorial Council, without the three missing members, announcing that those would be declared subsequently, when the Conference of State Prosecutors makes a decision in accordance with the law. In this manner, the President enabled the Prosecutorial Council to start to operate, because this body requires a majority of members for the decision-making, which is met by this incomplete composition. However, HRA believes that the Council should not make important decisions in this incomplete composition, and that the Conference of Prosecutors should promptly correct its mistake and hence enable the operation of the Council with all of its members.