Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) is hereby informing the public that, as of today, it will no longer be participating in the work of the Council of the Statistical System.
Resignation letter has been sent today to Minister of Finance and Social Welfare Milojko Spajic, informing him of our resignation from the position of a member of this Council.
Namely, an emergency electronic session of the Council started at 7:15 AM today without prior notice, and Council members are given 24-hour deadline to cast their votes on the draft Law on the Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in 2021.
We find it completely unacceptable and humiliating for such an important piece of legislation to be decided upon in the manner proposed, with no explanation for the urgency and by violating the Rules of Procedure of the Statistical System Council.
This particular law carries great statistical and political significance, and it may have implications for the already disturbed social stability, making this decision of the Council even more surprising.
Scheduling an electronic instead of a regular session prevented us from voicing our opinion on the proposed draft, hearing the opinions of others and suggesting improvements, because, according to the procedure, electronic session does not involve a discussion, only the voting process.
The role of the Council is thus made essentially pointless, given that the Law on Official Statistics defines this body as an expert and advisory body meant to improve the statistical culture and knowledge. This is obviously not a matter of either culture or knowledge, but rather a matter of one’s political need to circumvent the law and reduce the Council to a vegetative state in the statistical system.
CDT will not consent to such a treatment and with this symbolic act we are drawing attention to the need for public debate on this and all other issues relevant for the functioning of the state of Montenegro and its progress in EU integration efforts.