Although Montenegro is an EU candidate country with a long-standing membership negotiation process, it faces daily challenges in the field of democracy, as recognized by the EU. The main goal of the project is to strengthen democratic institutions with the aim of Montenegro’s full integration into the EU. In this regard, project partners CDT and UZOR have developed a proposal that will contribute to the development and consolidation of democratic institutions and the strengthening of Montenegro’s EU accession process.
The change in government has not altered the conditions for holding elections nor the credibility of the process. Civic election observation is increasingly being questioned, while discussions on the financing of political entities and election campaigns occur sporadically with almost no accountability. There has been no increase in women’s political representation, and the Roma community still lacks representation in parliament despite affirmative measures. The issue of affirmative measures for the Roma minority and the right to observe elections are also issues that need to be addressed by this reform.
Accordingly, the general aim of the project is to strengthen Montenegro’s EU accession process by encouraging democratic reforms and consolidating democratic processes and institutions through the improvement of the electoral process by promoting comprehensive electoral reform in line with OSCE/ODIHR recommendations. The idea is to identify challenges and solutions in key areas for electoral reform as a basis for political reports, political research in targeted areas of the electoral process, preparation and development of policy documents, a podcast with the electoral community and citizens, meetings with political party representatives, an advocacy campaign with a conference to present and discuss the key findings and solutions of the developed policy documents.
Budget: 30,000.00 EUR
Implementation Period: December 1, 2023 – December 30, 2024
Donors: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy
