OSCE Mission to Montenegro signs Memorandum of Understanding with Supreme Court to support Trial Monitoring Project

Dominique Waag, Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro and Judge Vesna Vučković, Acting President of the Supreme Court, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 7 February 2022.

The Memorandum will facilitate the implementation of the ongoing three-year project “Supporting a More Effective Administration of Justice in Corruption and Organised Crime Cases through Trial Monitoring,” funded by the European Commission and implemented by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro. This is part of a regional project, also implemented in Tirana, Sarajevo, Skopje and Pristina, with the overall objective to support a more effective judicial response to corruption and organised crime in South-Eastern Europe.

After signing the Memorandum, Waag said: “The Project uses the monitoring of organised crime and corruption cases to identify systemic issues, develop evidence-based recommendations, both at a regional and country level, and disseminate these findings and recommendations. We will take an inclusive approach when discussing its key findings and recommendations.”

Vučković said that an effective and efficient response of the judiciary to corruption and organized crime remains a major challenge for the Montenegrin judiciary in its efforts to improve the rule of law and restore public confidence in the work of the judiciary. “As assessed by the European Union, Montenegro’s criminal law policy towards corruption, inter alia, influences the independence of the judiciary, which often results in sentences below the legal minimum, as well as in plea agreements, which often result in milder sentences and thus create the impression of impunity,” said Vučkovič.

The Trial Monitoring Project aims to support effective administration of justice by enhancing evidence-based knowledge and understanding of judicial responses. Through monitoring of selected court trials in corruption and organised crime cases, the project will collect data in line with the ODIHR methodology, conduct media analysis and identify systemic gaps which can be used to provide recommendations to strengthen the judicial system.

More details about the project, its objectives, plans and implementation can be found in the factsheet and the project’s webpage.