Podgorica, (MINA) – The majority of parliamentary clubs in the Montenegrin Parliament have announced their support for amendments to the set of laws that provide for a 30 percent salary increase to judges and state prosecutors.

The MPs discussed on Tuesday, during the session that was three hours late, the proposed amendments to the Law on the Judicial Council and Judges, on the Law on the State Prosecutor’s Office and on the Law on the Constitutional Court, while the vote on the proposals will follow later.

Minister of Justice Bojan Bozovic said that the amendments to those three laws foresee that judges, presidents of courts, state prosecutors and heads of prosecution offices, as well as judges of the Constitutional Court, have the right to an allowance in the amount of 30 percent of their basic salary.

He pointed out that the working conditions in the judiciary remain at an inadequate level, and that for years, apart from special allowances, salaries have not been adjusted. He recalled that this was one of the topics of negotiations with representatives of the judiciary last year.

Then, as Bozovic explained, it was agreed that through amendments to the Law on Salaries in the Public Sector, judges and prosecutors would receive a 30 percent salary increase, but since that law has not yet entered the parliamentary procedure, the Ministry of Justice proposed amendments to the existing laws.

He said that they are currently in communication with the Ministry of Finance to finalize the draft of the new law adding that, when finished, it will be submitted to the European Commission for review.

During the parliamentary session, Bozovic also presented the courts’ performance from the beginning of the year until July 23.

“We have the highest efficiency rate of the Supreme Court, which is at 118 percent, meaning that more cases were resolved than received in the same period”, said Bozovic.

He said that the Montenegrin courts were the first in the region to pass a final judgment based on the Sky application and expressed hope that they would work even faster and more efficiently in the future.