The third Steering Committee meeting of the action “Improved procedural safeguards in judicial proceedings in Montenegro” took place in Podgorica on 3 February 2021.

Mladenka Tešić, Programme Manager for Human Rights and Democratisation in the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro, and Evgenia Giakoumopoulou, Head of Operations of the Council of Europe Programme Office in Podgorica co-chaired the meeting that was attended by the representatives of the beneficiary institutions. They have both highlighted the relevance of the action in the context of the EU accession process and the European standards.

The meeting focused primarily on how to build upon achievements to further improve legal certainty and ensure the rights of people involved in judicial proceedings in Montenegro. The discussion was led by the beneficiary institutions themselves, as the key actors for change, to identify possible ways forward within the action, to reach their common goal via respective means.

Beneficiary institutions confirmed the action’s relevance to national needs and priorities. Emphasis was put on alignment of the procedural safeguards with relevant standards, further harmonisation of the court practice and improvement of the free legal aid services.

The discussion led to the approval of the proposed work plan by the Steering Committee, as amended.

The action "Improved procedural safeguards in judicial proceedings in Montenegro" is a part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.