The Ministry of Economy says that the opening of chapter 8 of the Competition requires certain preconditions related to the legislative and institutional framework.
"In order to open this chapter, it is necessary to ensure that the Agency for Protection of Competition becomes operational and has adequate resources for the full implementation of the state aid rules," said the Ministry of Economy.
The Government stated that the Council of the Agency for the Protection of Competition was formed in this regard and the Acting Director of the Agency was appointed.
"The process of adopting the statute and the rules on internal organization and systematization of the Agency is underway, after which the administrators and state employees from the Ministry of Finance will be taken over, who conducted professional and administrative work for the needs of the State Aid Control Commission. Completion of these obligations is expected soon, after which the Agency will be operational," stated the Ministry.
They could not and would like to forecast and specify when this chapter will be open.
Giving any forecasts on our part would be premature and unfounded bearing in mind that the assessment of the readiness to open Chapter 8, as well as the possible date of its opening is given exclusively by the European Union.
In mid-September, European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Johannes Hahn announced that in chapter 8 on competition, Montenegro is working to meet the conditions for opening up and that it is now particularly important to make an independent state aid body fully functional.
"But at this stage, it's too early to say when this chapter could be open. Negotiations will continue on the basis of their own merits. That's why the ball is now in the hands of Montenegro. The criteria for all chapters provide guidelines, and now it is up to Montenegro to work according to these instructions, in order to further improve the negotiations," said Han to Pobjeda.
Representatives of the Ministry of Economy reminded that in the previous period, in order to open Chapter 8, new and updated legal solutions were adopted.
"The Law on Amendments to the Law on Protection of Competition, which entered into force on March 8th this year, the competence of the Competition Protection Agency, which, as an independent body, dealt exclusively with issues related to the prevention, limitation and distortion of competition on the market, also extended to issues related to the control of state aid, to which the European Commission gave a positive opinion," the representatives of the Ministry announced.
Text by Pobjeda, on October 7th, 2018, read more at CdM
