WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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Draginja Vuksanović Stanković, member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), said that the party submitted to the Constitutional Court the Initiative for the evaluation of the constitutionality and legality of the Basic Agreement concluded by the replaced government with the Serbian Orthodox Church last August.
Vuksanović Stanković said at the press conference that even when accepting, as she said, the "Basic Agreement" dictated by Belgrade, they warned of formal and substantive problems that the proposed document had with law and justice.
Obviously, it was more important for the deposed Government to please the SPC and give it what it does not belong to, than for the country to turn to European integration and solving accumulated social, economic and political problems. Now that the Constitutional Court is back in operation, the possibility of legal proceedings to overturn the unconstitutional Agreement signed by the Government of Montenegro opens up. And we want to take advantage of that opportunity right away. We promised that and we are acting accordingly - Vuksanović Stanković pointed out.
She added that in the creation of the initiative, they used numerous critical opinions and arguments presented by eminent institutions, non-governmental organizations and legal experts, who, before signing the Agreement, strongly advocated the view that it was unconstitutional and illegal.
Based on the presented facts and everything that we have clearly indicated in the Initiative, it is clear - the "Temelini contract" with the Serbian Orthodox Church is in contradiction with the legal order of Montenegro in its entirety, as well as in individual provisions - stressed Vuksanović Stanković.
According to her, both in the preamble and in more than half of the articles of the Agreement, it is a matter of non-compliance with the legal system, which, she believes, is quite enough to annul this Agreement.
In the preamble, for example, the Government unconstitutionally took over the competences of the state as a whole, because in the text of the Agreement, it binds Cru Gora, as the state as a whole, in several places. This is contrary to Article 100 of the Constitution. Also unconstitutional and illegal is the decision from the preamble, which establishes that the legal basis for signing the contract for the Government and the State of Montenegro is Orthodox canon law and the Constitution of the SPC. State bodies derive their competences and obligations from the Constitution and legal regulations of Montenegro, not from the canons of religious organizations. This is contrary to Articles 10 and 14 of the Constitution - Vuksanović Stanković said.
In Article 2, the Government, guaranteeing SPC with public law authority, again violates the Constitution in two ways, it takes over the competences that belong to the Assembly, because the Constitution says that public law powers are transferred by law.
Also, the principle of equality is violated because other religious communities are not given these powers. And so respectively in Articles 7, 8, 10, 12, ... Which talk about the obligation of state bodies to carry out their competences and responsibilities established by the Constitution and the law either at the request of the SPC or they have to ask for permission, consent from the SPC - pointed out Vuksanović Stanković .
That is why, as he says, it is extremely important for the Constitutional Court to consider this initiative and to make a decision as soon as possible without any pressure, completely independently, only on the basis of the presented legal arguments.
We emphasize that the SDP has nothing against concluding a contract with the SPC. We are strongly in favor of all religious communities being equal before the law and the Constitution. We also said this on the occasion of the formation of the Government, which lost confidence in the Parliament. But this, among other things, is also a question of the rule of law. A sensitive and important issue such as the relationship between Montenegro and the SPC must not be regulated in an unconstitutional and illegal manner, as was done by this Agreement - said Vuksanović Stanković.
M.J. - POBJEDA
