Montenegro: CSOs Demand Withdrawal of Draft Law on NGOs and Law on Games of Chance

On 26 April in Podgorica, a group of 198 CSOs started an initiative calling on the Prime Minister Duško Marković to withdraw the draft Law on NGOs and Law on Games of chance, both currently in parliamentary proceedings, as they are considered to be damaging to the civil sector. The CSO Coalition “Saradnjom do Cilja” stressed that the draft laws adopted by the Montenegrin Government on March 30 largely jeopardized the work of many CSOs, implying a drastic reduction in financial support from the state budget. According to the draft Laws, the Government will allocate at least 0,2% of the current annual state budget to CSOs, while additional 0,1% will be allocated for co-financing projects supported by EU funds. According to CRNVO’s Executive director, Ana Novakovic, that would amount to only 2.4 million EUR allocated to CSOs, making Montenegro the country in the region that has the smallest state budget allocation for projects in areas of public interest. More information is available here.

Source: CRNVO