The intention of Vijesti’s editorial policy to underestimate the indisputable results that represent perhaps the greatest development step in the history of Montenegro, trying to create a collective blindness whose epilogue would be the collapse of Montenegro, was confirmed in its text titled Đukanović Forgot What He Signed, where the data related to the selection of contractors, construction and financing of the priority Bar-Boljare highway section are manipulated, says the President Milo Đukanović’s cabinet.
“The first untruth stated in the text refers to the claim that ‘the Government declared the contracts secret and concluded them outside the legal system and domestic laws’. The author did not state on the basis of which facts and legal arguments he/she makes such claims, because they have no foundation in reality. The Government of Montenegro proposed to the Parliament, and it adopted, the Law on the Highway in order to have clear and legally defined obligations regarding the implementation of the largest and most important project in the history of Montenegro”, the cabinet points out.
Also, President Đukanović‘s cabinet adds, regardless of the fact that it was not its obligation, and starting from the importance and value of the project, the Government, with the proposal of the Highway Law, submitted to the Parliament the General FIDIC conditions of the Design and Construction Agreement, special conditions contained in the Design and Construction Agreement and the Preferential Loan Agreement with Exim Bank.
The claim is also half-true, it is added, that the arbitration on possible disputes is located in Beijing, and that it is conducted according to Chinese laws. With regard to disputes related to the Design and Construction Agreement, the jurisdiction of the International Arbitration Court of the Zurich Chamber of Commerce has been agreed, while the substantive law of the state of Montenegro applies.
“As for the claim relating to ‘renunciation of sovereignty’ which is being deliberately manipulated these days, if there is really so much concern for the sovereignty of Montenegro, then all the details should be checked. And they show that this (arbitration) clause exists in all agreements that Exim Bank, like most European banks, signs with the states”, the cabinet explains in its reaction.
In the same way, Exim Bank has implemented several agreements with Serbia, Croatia as a member of the EU, it also signs loan agreements with the immunity waiver clause, such as the Agreement with the Council of Europe Development Bank for the project of financing water and communal infrastructure, and numerous others, the cabinet explains.
