The seminar “Independence and accountability of state prosecutors-CoE standards and recommendations”, held on 4 and 5 October 2018 in Petrovac (Montenegro) gathered prosecutors from the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office, heads of the Basic State Prosecutor’s Offices and members of the Prosecutorial Council to discuss the relevant standards of the Council of Europe .

Furthermore, the seminar represented a good platform for discussion between Montenegrin prosecutors and European experts on topics such as appointment, promotion and evaluation of prosecutors, status of prosecutors in terms of salaries and rights to pension, accountability of state prosecutors focusing on the implementation of the codes of ethics and disciplinary liability measures.

Welcoming remarks were given by Mr Ivica Stankovic, Supreme State Prosecutor, Ms Marijana Lakovic Draskovic, Ministry of Justice, Ms Senka Danilovic, Center for Training in Judiciary and State Prosecution, Ms Plamena Halacheva, Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro and Ms Angela Longo, Council of Europe Programme Office in Podgorica. Speakers at the seminar were Council of Europe international experts and CCPE representatives, who presented topics related to organisational independence of the prosecution service, functional autonomy of state prosecutors, accountability of state prosecutors and relations between prosecutors and the media.

The publication “CCPE Opinions”, with the translation of twelve adopted opinions of the Council of Europe body which gathers prosecutors from all Council of Europe member states, was officially presented at the seminar.

The seminar was organised in the framework of the Horizontal Facility Action “Accountability of the Judicial System”, jointly funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe.