Funding of political parties and election campaigns

Details
Published: June 2, 2021
During the event
During the event
Montenegro

On 26 May 2021, a conference on the “Funding of political parties and election campaigns” took place in Podgorica. The hybrid event was organised by the non-governmental organisation MANS (a network for strengthening the NGO sector) in cooperation with the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro, the British Embassy and IRZ. In addition to participants who had arrived at the venue in compliance with hygiene restrictions, many listeners and also some speakers joined the event online.

The event was opened by:

  • Aleksa Bečić, President of the Parliament of Montenegro,
  • Oana-Kristina Popa, Head of the EU Delegation to Montenegro,
  • Dr. Robert Weber, German Ambassador,
  • Steve Arrick, Deputy Head of the British Embassy, and
  • Vanja Čalović Marković, Director of the NGO MANS.

The welcome was followed by two rounds of discussions. In the first round of discussions, delegates from various political parties represented in the Montenegrin parliament discussed the current situation in terms of party and campaign funding in Montenegro, with some irregularities and the need for improvement also being discussed.

Subsequently, foreign experts, including representatives of the OSCE and Transparency International, presented foreign experiences regarding party and election campaign funding.

The German-speaking Czech constitutional judge Prof. Dr. Vojtech Šimiček, who has a doctorate in comparative law on party financing and is a member of the advisory board of the Institute for German and International Party Law in Düsseldorf, spoke on behalf of IRZ. Professor Šimiček, who has also provided international legal advice in other West Balkan countries, presented the legal regulations in Germany as well as in his home country. He worked out the similarities and differences between the two and went into the considerations behind each. He began by noting that internationally, major changes in the legal regulations governing party financing usually had one of two causes, namely the case law of the Constitutional Court or a party financing scandal.

The event, which was also streamed on the internet, received widespread media coverage across the country, e.g.: Šimiček: Partije ne smiju trošiti državni novac proizvoljno.

Here you can watch the whole conference:
Finansiranje političkih partija i izbornih kampanja (VIDEO)