Secretary-General of the Parliament of Montenegro Mr Aleksandar Klarić today has met Deputy Secretary-General of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia Mr Miki Milkovski and Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia at the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) Mr Damir Neziri.

Reminding that the cooperation with the WFD and the British Embassy in Podgorica, through their support to the project Strengthening the financial supervision of the Parliament, resulted in the creation of the Parliamentary Budgetary Office, Mr Klarić stressed that this parliamentary unit achieved impressive results, being a strong asset for strengthening the control and oversight roles of the Parliament. In this context, he expressed readiness to exchange positive practices and experiences through joint cooperation between the two highest legislatures, for the purpose of strengthening bilateral and parliamentary ties.

 “With initiatives like this, we demonstrate how parliamentary cooperation can and should be the impetus for advancing the relations. We are ready to give our full contribution within this project, and within each and every future project, while at the same time we stand ready to provide our support to the Assembly of the Republic of Northern Macedonia, to initiate new ideas, and to possibly be the initiator of a future partnership, because we are aware that a competent and skilled staff is a precondition for a strong parliament”, Mr Klarić said.

Acknowledging the importance of the PBO’s contribution in connection to financial supervision and in terms of preparing MPs for discussions on the most important topics concerning the budget, Mr Klarić underscored that the Parliament would further invest in the administrative capacities of this organisational unit.

Having informed his interlocutors about the results achieved by the Montenegrin Parliament since the beginning of the 27th term, he emphasised the importance of the fact that the Parliament of Montenegro ranked the most transparent legislature in the region (including the legislatures of some EU member states, such as Croatia and Slovenia), as assessed by reputable stakeholders, adding that over 90 projects were carried out in a little over a year. As he stated, by opening the Parliamentary Channel, providing state-of-the-art equipment for broadcasting/web-streaming parliamentary committees’ meetings, forming a production team, and opening the Parliament to citizens, formalising petitions and initiating an e-petition project, the Montenegrin Parliament had created preconditions for its further strong development, competing thus – in technical and administrative sense – with the most developed European parliaments.

Stressing that the two countries have traditionally had friendly and meaningful ties at all levels, Deputy Secretary-General of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia Mr Miki Milkovski said that he was happy to visit the Montenegrin Parliament, expecting that this would continue to be the case in the future as well – through partnership, projects and initiatives. He underlined the importance of establishing PBOs within parliamentary service, first of all regarding the strengthening of financial control and supervision.

Mr Milkovski briefed Mr Klarić on all attainments of the North Macedonian’s Assembly, innovation projects implemented recently, stressing that they were paying a special attention to raising the level of transparency, and strengthening the skills of the parliamentary staff. Mr Milkovski said that his parliament was primarily committed to the importance of strategic action in the operations of the highest legislature.

The interlocutors confirmed the full and unquestionable support to the project of establishing budgetary offices, and emphasised that in the future they would strive to improve, strengthen and further develop the work of these organisational units.

The meeting was also attended by: Ms Bojana Bulut, Head of the Montenegrin PBO, representatives of the Montenegrin PBO Mr Goran Nikolić and Ms Vjera Prelević, as well as guests from North Macedonia – Head of North Macedonian PBO Mr Petar Minov, representative of the North Macedonian PBO Ms Katerina Tasevska, Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia at the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) Mr Damir Neziri, Director of the WFD for Montenegro Ms Ana Milutinović, Programme Manager of the WFD for North Macedonia Mr Petar Trajkov and Coordinator of the Programme in Montenegro Ms  Mina Međedović.