27 March 2019 - Minister of Culture Aleksandar Bogdanović met in Strasbourg with the Council of Europe Secretary General Torbjorn Jagland for talks on legislative reform in the field of media, as well as on the Council of Europe's programmes in the area of culture in which Montenegro actively participates.

Minister Bogdanović pointed out the importance of the Council of Europe's expertise and recommendations aimed at further development of democracy, strengthening the rule of law and protection of human rights and freedoms, which significantly helps and contributes to Montenegro's EU bid.

"Allow me to thank you personally for the support provided by the Council of Europe's experts in the reform of media legislation and to emphasise that the Council of Europe remains the most important reference point in our efforts to improve media policies," said Minister Bogdanović.

He informed Secretary-General Jagland about further activities in the drafting of the media laws of Montenegro, which includes the Council of Europe experts.

Secretary-General Torbjorn Jagland emphasised that he is encouraged by evident progress in the reform of the media field since he paid particular attention to the challenges faced by the media scene in the previous period. He underlined the Council of Europe's readiness to provide the necessary expert support in the forthcoming period, to provide high-quality legal solutions dealing with this area.

As to the Platform for the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists, it was concluded that Montenegro is an excellent example of cooperation. In that regard, they praised the activities of Montenegro in terms of regular updating the activities relating to the complaints set out in the platform.

Both sides welcomed Montenegro's participation in the Eurimages, the cultural support fund of the Council of Europe, whose active member since the beginning of this year and expressed the belief that the funds provided by the Fund will significantly contribute to the development of the film industry in Montenegro.

During the meeting, there were also discussions about the activities of Montenegro in the programs of the Council of Europe in the field of cultural heritage. It was expressed satisfaction with the strengthened cooperation of Montenegro with the Secretariat of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes, and it was agreed to consider the possibility of Montenegro's inclusion in the new cultural routes.

27 March 2019 - The Government of Montenegro fully supports the signing of the International Data Exchange Agreement for checking property reports among the countries of Southeast Europe, which would be the first example of this type of data exchange to prevent corruption in Europe, Deputy Prime Minister Zoran Pažin noted.

"We are convinced that the closer regional cooperation that will be provided under this international agreement will contribute to building a just and safe society in Montenegro - a society that clearly condemns, efficiently prevents and decisively punishes every form of corruption," said Deputy Prime Minister Pažin at the opening of the second round of negotiations on the signing of the Agreement in Podgorica.

He stressed that an effective fight against corruption is an unavoidable duty of every country that wants to ensure equal rights and opportunities for all its citizens and a legal system that encourages the creation of a new economic value.

"We are pleased that the Sarajevo-based Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative, under whose auspices this draft agreement was developed, has accepted Montenegro's offer to host today's event. This was our expression of dual commitment: both to fighting corruption at the national level and promoting regional and overall international cooperation in that regard," he stated.

The Deputy Prime Minister underlined the paramount importance of international cooperation in this area, adding that the signing of the Data Exchange Agreement to check property reports will provide a direct exchange of data relating to property registration among the countries of South East Europe.

"We often talk about the fight against corruption in the context of Montenegro's EU accession process. Nevertheless, the fight against corruption is first and foremost a necessity and an obligation of our society, and only then a confirmation of our belonging to the community of modern European democracies," he said.

He agreed on the assessments from the preamble to the Draft Agreement that corruption represents a problem and threat to the stability of democratic institutions, the values of democracy, justice and good governance, and the proper and fair functioning of economies. "Therefore, we can say that the determination and intensity of the fight against corruption testify to our willingness and ability to protect, preserve and improve the highest values of our society," the Deputy Prime Minister concluded.

In the National Library of Budva last night a scientific monograph "Minerva's trace - prose work of Montenegrin writers" by dr. Sofija Kalezic was presented. The discussion about the monograph was held by Dr. Andrijana Nikolic, journalist Branka Cvorovic, professor Zorica Joksimovic, who with her work is present in the monograph and the author, and Milos Boreta read the story by Zorica Joksimovic.

The monograph "Minerva’s Trail" is the first study on women writers in Montenegro and a critical review of their creativity. In her two-year work on the monograph, the Doctor of Literary Science, Sofia Kalezic spoke with more than 100 women and read 200 books, and thirty female writers are included in the monograph. The two authors from Budva, Zorica Joksimovic and Katarina Saric, have earned a spot on the pages of the monograph.

Doc. Dr. Andrijana Nikolic in her review of the monograph pointed out the following:

In the foreword to this book for the terms "female letter","female writing", or "female literature", the author emphasized that they represent a type of language discrimination, which in its very name implies that the creation of female writers is something that is normally outside the artistic framework and fields, like satellites that circle the world of "real" art. Although in literary, theoretical and critical terminology there are no terms such as "male letters" or "male literature," as if this is to say that it is understood that the creativity of men is in itself art. The author states that the term "female letter" is used in the pejorative, which gives the connotation of a pathetic, frivolous, and trivial one. Conscious of the fact that literature is an integral part of everyday life and as such speaks of everything that is also referred to the human effort to devise the reality, the author set herself into the adventure of exploring a special, meaningful "world of works". Without false modesty, when someone enters a path of research, one can never even imagine what kind of forest he will be taken through the paths of empirical work.  

I suppose that Sofia Kalezić could not have guessed where she was taken by the women with their letters, while scientific persecution exceeded the scope of the expected one. In two years, to read and process at least two hundred books only for this monograph, it is undoubtedly a matter of respect. Because, to expose the dryness of every style, peculiarity or end-edges on which individual writers moved, could only be done by the dedication and perseverance with an excellent analytic note. In a comprehensive cross-section of this monograph, which we can easily say is scientific, methodological and interpretive, the author has approached differently from writer to the writer, in which she indisputably expressed the pluralism of methods and approach to interpretations, in order to deduce any thought of any kind the defects in every literary work. What is most difficult in every scientific approach is to separate the artistic value and dedicate it to the way to satisfy the phenomenalist school of Romain Ingarden, who found in each literary work a layer of meaning, a layer of sound, a layer of objectivity and a layer of schematized aspects. For the connoisseurs of the literary word, when I say that a special place in the study of all the texts, this author devoted to the formula-writer-work-reader, taking into account all the meticulous ornaments of every text processed in Jaus's "horizon of expectation" and the indirect influence of the literary work on the reader.

We can say that every literary work was analyzed separately, understanding it as an individual spiritual creation, which was also accomplished by the Dilta program, which was based on the compression of "spiritual history" which is viewed as a manifestation of the spiritual situation of a particular epoch, or time, on literary study. To be more specific, Sofia Kalezic dealt with the dominant artistic value of every read piece, and particularly, she united women's creativity through the prism of women. She successfully overcame the problems of systematization and classification of literary works, and thus by individual interpretations covered the analyzed area. What is important is the fact that guided by creative-artistic input, author Kalezic very critically dealt with the problem of reception of these works. Sharp critic, Sofija Kalezic did not rank the works, by the system of higher or lower values, but placed them in the spirit of postmodern manners in a flat horizontal, giving them a place of equality among the equals, that is, the best among the equals. "

Journalist and President of Women's Organization in Budva Branka Cvorovic, in her review of Sofija Kalezic's monograph, presented the audience with a cross-section of represented authors and their works, guided by thematic and motivational characteristics. In the conclusion of her presentation, she recommended that from now on we read the books as "Sofia's trail":

"After the monograph by Sofija Kalezic, which certainly occupies a high position on the scale of literary criticism, my recommendation would be to read the books from" Sofia's trail" since only in this way we will not miss the quality, exciting and valuable texts, stories and novels of Montenegrin writers who wrote about us and for us.

Sofija Kalezić has been scientifically and skillfully pervading the paths, and it is up to us to search for, absorb, explore, dream, find, to underline important words and sentences, remember, refresh, contemplate, and read with pleasure."

One of the present authors in the monograph of Sofija Kalezic, Zorica Joksimović, in the form of an essayist tale, turned to this scientific achievement. Citing the symbolism of the title Minerva's trail, she recalled that Minerva was a protector of creative professions, a symbol of wisdom among many nations; respected on Capitol, because of her strict temperament and love towards the beauty:

"Not by accident, Sofija Kalezic takes the title "Minerva's trail" for the monograph of the prose work by the Montenegrin female writers. A collection of selected ones, according to aesthetic and other qualitative criteria of the authors. I just do not know if she saw them with a spear and a shield as in the hands of the Protector? Spear, that word by which the authors write down their creative expressions, and the shield, their work that defends them. "Warriors" with an opus of words of multitude diverse actions in these and other "sad times", when even history is not "true" and "faithful" as reality, they write their letters. Thus, the author, guided by the trace of Minerva, affects the freedom and maturity of understanding one culture, that certain facts of literary-artistic self-importance are not "seen" through glasses with tinted glasses or a historiographic dioptre of short-sightedness."

Speaking about the literary reception of the creativity by Montenegrin writers, Zorica Joksimovic said:

"The literary reception of the literature written by women, Kalezic gives, starting from their form to the meaning that is outside of this form, that is, as such, the goal is by itself. She points out "the diversity of the emergence of various narrative subspecies within the framework of the contemporary creation of our writers, from novels and collections of stories of realistic and neorealistic character, through the form of a social, historical, family novel." Some of them, such as Vida Ognjenovic, whose works a long time ago sailed the seas of the Montenegrin and European literature, to those works which the author presented analytically, and which she thinks were "recently illuminated" to the broad readership audience.

In the end, the author, Dr. Sofija Kalezić, thanked the organizer and participants of the promotion who, each from their point of view, presented the monograph “Minerva trail”. The authors presented in the monograph in their works dealt with similar topics: the position of the woman in the family, community, company. In her introduction to the monograph, Sofija Kalezic emphasized that she dedicated it "to the Montenegrin women of modern times overcame not so small and easy civilization arch, who inside themselves pulsate with the vein of their own ancestors, who are ready to fight and love, and have, in various ways, shown that love and struggle are two essential imperatives of life. "

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Text by CdM, on March 26th, 2019, read more at CdM

Montenegrin Telekom, the first-ranked company in the field of "Telecommunications" in the last year's selection of the "100 largest in Montenegro", is the exclusive partner of the project which will take place this year.

The project "100 largest in Montenegro" is being implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy, with the support of the Chamber of Commerce and with the sponsorship of Societe Generale Bank Montenegro. Based on clear and publicly available criteria, the ranking of the most successful Montenegrin companies is published in the publication "Business newspapers-100 largest in Montenegro" in May.

In the ranking carried out by BI Consulting for the project, the Montenegrin Telekom took the first place in the field of "Telecommunications". In addition to this prestigious result, this company has taken the eighth-place according to the revenues, eighth place in profit, while in the number of employees it in the sixteenth place. As a technological leader, the Montenegrin Telekom helps the growth and development of the Montenegrin economy, and the decision to support the project as an exclusive partner this year was not surprising," the organizers said. 

Telekom said that they recognized the values the project promotes, and through their affirmation, they stimulate the development of the Montenegrin business environment and economy. "We are glad that this year we are the exclusive partners of the project" 100 Largest in Montenegro" because the emphasis of the project is on the affirmation of quality and successful and transparent business. Montenegrin Telekom, as part of the Deutsche Telekom Group, provides the most advanced quality services to the private and public sector in Montenegro, as well as smart solutions and expertise in their implementation. As a technological leader and reliable partner, we help both the public and business sector in Montenegro to take advantage of all the opportunities that digitalization brings and thus improve their business and operations with citizens. Such projects additionally contribute to connecting Montenegrin companies and sharing experiences, making them the most successful in the country," said Predrag Perković, director of the Business Sector in the Montenegrin Telekom.

The organizers remind that after submitting the business books for 2018, the Montenegrin companies that meet the criteria will be ranked according to the revenues, and also the number of employees, including micro, small, medium and large companies. In addition to these ranking, the project will rank and reward the income of the largest companies depending on the activity, a total of 12 activities, and a special prize will be awarded for the company that has in the last three years recorded a constant increase in the number of employees, total income and net profit. All project information is available on the official website of the project: 100najvecih

Text by Promo, on March 26th 2019, read more at Vijesti

The Montenegrin-coastal Metropolitan will begin the construction of a large temple dedicated to the Holy Apostle Marko, on the property of the Church of St. Petka, on the city bypass. This was said by Metropolitan Amfilohije to "Vijesti", confirming that the project of the Orthodox Church is finished, and that Budva deserved such a sanctuary.

The construction of the temple is planned at the place where the city chapel is currently located, which the Municipality has built, without the approval of the Metropolitan, so that the church would then allow it to remain, but that it must be moved when the construction of the temple, which used to exist at that place, was planned. The temple is planned right next to the HDL supermarket, which will soon be built on church land, which the Metropolitan has given to lease to this chain of stores for ten years and plans to invest this money in the construction of the temple.

"With God’s will, we will build the temple of the apostle Marko, and it also depends upon the citizens of Budva. And it needs to be built because it is the oldest temple of all. It's time for this temple to be restored. The Apostle Marko is over a lion (with the example of Saint Marko, in pictures usually shown with a winged lion, because it emphasizes the power of resurrection and the overcoming of death), and the lion is in the coat of arms of Montenegro. If we want to reintegrate the coat of arms of Montenegro in the right way, then we should build the temple of the Holy Apostle Mark," said the Metropolitan Amfilohije.

"I see that Budva became a big city. This temple will be the decoration of Budva and its soul. For, the old Budva, where the temples are both Roman Catholic and ours, the Holy Trinity, and now here we should build a real temple dedicated to the apostle Marko, a witness to eternal and impenetrable love," said Amfilohije, and stated that the chapel was to be moved because it was placed here without blessing.

The city's lead architect recently gave her consent to the conceptual solution of the business-commercial complex HDL, which will be built on the church land. Although the conceptual solution envisages two phases, one that supposes the construction of supermarkets, and the other 59 apartments, as it was told to "Vijesti" by the municipality, the construction of residential part will not be carried out.

For HDL to build a supermarket, it was necessary for the parcel to be completed, so at the beginning of November, the Municipal Assembly, by a strong majority, gave the green light to sell 483 square meters of municipal land to the supermarket chain for 154 thousand euros.

The green light to build a supermarket was voted by ten members of the ruling coalition, namely, six from DF, three from the Montenegrin, SNP, and independent councilor Stevan Dzakovic. There were nine delegates against it - seven from Democrats, independent councilor Dragana Vujovic and URA Bozena Jelusic. A vote by one delegate prevailed so that the municipal land is sold to HDL. The total area of the church land on which the temple will be built, and also the supermarket is 4 518 square meters.

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Text by Vuk Lajovic, on March 28th 2019, read more at Vijesti

The municipality of Tivat has announced a public invitation to purchase a firefighting hydraulic platform for extinguishing fires and rescues at a height, with a platform - a working bench of minimum 27 meters tall. The estimated value of the tender is 100,000 euros with VAT.

It is a select fire truck that will be used to complete the Tivat Protection and Rescue Service (SZS) fleet. According to the conditions from the public invitation, the horizontal reach of the basket is a minimum 17 meters, carrying capacity 400 kilograms, and an aluminum auxiliary staircase leads to the basket along the hydraulic bridge.

"This is a firefighting vehicle and rescue at high altitudes in multi-storey buildings, roofs and the like. The hydraulic platform we are purchasing will be the first vehicle of this type in Montenegro," said the head of SZS Tivat Zoran Barbic yesterday. The vehicle must include, among other things, a fire extinguisher on the platform, a power generator, a smoke fan, a high-pressure hose and a compressed air tank, two sets of breathing devices, a wood saw chain, a hydraulic winch and two reflectors. It is necessary to have an annual service for the current year, and the offer must include staff training. The public tender will be closed on April 15th, and the decision on the selection of the most favorable bid will be made within 60 days.

Last year through public tenders, SZS obtained a new vehicle for narrow streets and for initial fire extinguishing with two separate new systems for extinguishing with foam and compressed foam. For this purpose, 59,206 euros were spent, while the volunteer firefighter company "Krtoli" used the fire vehicle with a capacity of 7,000 liters of water. For these needs, the Municipality has allocated EUR 14,889.

In 2018, SZS Tivat had a total of 257 activities in the field.

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Text by Sinisa Lukovic, on March 27th 2019, read more at Vijesti

The first match of the semi-final series of the ABA League play-off in Zagreb is the mirror of the current course of the basketball season for Buducnost Voli, first under the leadership of Aleksandar Dzikic, and then Jasmin Repes. Without a for the guests in the Euroleague (there are still two chances, against Barcelona and Panathinaikos), the team from Podgorica also lost all important matches in the regional league this season - from Red Star, Partizan and twice to Cedevita, the second time on Monday night (90:83). It's unnecessary to talk about the defeat to Cibona and, in particular, against Krka at home. 

Buducnost outside of "Moraca" is a completely different team. Without a win away, Jasmin Repes's players simply can not defend the trophy in the ABA league. Therefore, they cannot play in the Euroleague.

And the match against Cedevita in Zagreb, especially in the second half, does not offer too much reason for optimism, although it is clear that Buducnost has the quality and experience to solve the semi-final series against Cedevita in their benefit.

"As we have already guessed, the game in Zagreb was difficult, and all the matches with Cedevita this season were uncertain until the end. We started the match well, we played well in the first half, but we couldn’t continue the whole match. We allowed too many rebounds, the defeat was not at the great level in the second half, we missed important shots," says the center of Buducnost Goga Bitadze, who scored eight points in the first match against Cedevita, four rebounds and two blocks.

Buducnost has no right to a mistake, a win is imperative on Sunday in Moraca, to attain the final match in Zagreb. Everything else would be just a catastrophe.

"We have to show the reaction of the team in Moraca, to win in front of the home fans. We saw where we made mistakes, we analyzed, and I'm sure we will be ready for the second game. Of course, we believe in victory and going further; we knew from the beginning that we had to win at least one match away."

The problem, which is not a small one, is the preparation of the second match against Cedevita. While the team from Zagreb will be able to "make a plan" for the duel in Podgorica, Bitadze and his comrades will have to play the penultimate match in the Euroleague in Barcelona on Thursday.

"The match with Barcelona comes at a bad time, but it's not something new, we knew we had it coming for sure. If we win the third match against Cedevita, we will have a match in Athens (Panathinaikos), but that is the price of playing in the Euroleague. Cedevita has more time to prepare, but we already know each other enough and, as I said, I believe that on Sunday we will be ready to transfer the series to Zagreb," the Georgian center concluded.

Jasmin Repesa said that "nothing surprised him in Cedevita's game".

"We also counted on what was not the case in the previous games, that they could play with two tall players. It did not make a difference compared to when Kuk played, or Ramljak or Muric. There was confusion in terms of the attacking and defense, if we are talking about some individual characteristics that are clear and well known," Repes said.

It was known that the greatest danger was Kobs (23 points) and Pulen (20), but they were elusive to Buducnost’s defense.

"It is clear that Cedevita’s game begins with them, but in their game, no matter how good they are and creative, their tall players is something much better than their individual quality." Cedevita has tall players with a lot of understanding of the the game, they have experience, have gone through all the schools. Regardless that Stipanovic is not a player who will strike a shot from the outside or who will hugely hit free throws, but he has the recognition of the game and passes the ball better than some outside players.

Our problem was in the first-line breaks, where Cedevita had a lot of passes under the hoop, where they had the final throw or went on a rebound in the attack and scored easy points. Even when the defense was in good shape," Repes said.

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Text by Sasa Joncic, on March 27th 2019, read more at Vijesti

March 28, 2019 - "Most tourists coming to Kotor are from the UK, Russia, the region, France, Germany, and the USA," the director of Tourist Organisation of Kotor Ana Nives Radovic told Radio Kotor.

March 28, 2019 - The Airports of Montenegro Company (ACG) last year doubled its earnings and realized a new record in the physical volume of air traffic in Tivat and Podgorica.

March 28, 2019 - The new Harbor Act is introducing a lot of changes to meet the demands of the growing nautical tourism industry. The Director General of the Maritime Traffic Department at the Ministry of Traffic and Maritime Affairs, Vladan Radonjić, speaking on the development of nautical tourism in Montenegro, said that it significantly overruled the provisions of the applicable Harbor Act and its latest amendments from June 2013.

For the needs of complete service of foreign and domestic yachts, shipyard ports are being developed, among which Bonići Tivat and Bijela shipyards have already been proclaimed, Radonjić told CdM.

He explained that the Harbor Act introduces a new term "the city port," which recognizes the communal berths in Bar, Budva, Tivat, and Herceg Novi.

"All ports will, after the entry into force of the new law, have to cooperate with management bodies to make a plan and to pinpoint which part of the port will be the operational coastline, and what part of the port is intended for communal berths and commercial berths. At the assembly committees, there were questions as to how many berths there would be, which is very difficult to say because floating objects tied to these joints are of different dimensions and shapes. The best answer is that the Plan that will provide a part of the port for communal berths, and then the operator will determine how many berths it can have in that area. The Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs is essential to clearly define the area of the Operational Coast, which is embarked on the boarding and disembarking of passengers, and that the Operational Coast is free and accessible to all maritime passenger transport facilities, especially during the summer season. I believe that these changes and improvements are done very well and will improve nautical tourism in Montenegro," said Radonjić.

He adds that through this Code, Nautical Maritime Ports have so far been recognized only as ports that receive yachts and boats. However, this possibility is now extended to other navigable facilities, so if a port of nautical tourism is interested in expanding its activities to passenger ships, the Law allows this with the additional approval of the Managing Authority or the Public Company in ports of local importance.

"Indeed, there is already interest in the nautical port-marina Porto Montenegro, so that they also deal with passenger traffic from passenger ships, and that the entry into force of this Law remains to address the Sea Property to Expand Activities. I am convinced that in this way it will be significant that in Boka Bay we do not have only one port for passenger ships, but that the pressure from Kotor will be allocated to another port in the bay," said Radonjić

He said that the request of the operator to allow the port of Zelenika to enable passenger traffic was not approved because it doesn't meet all the standards. The Port of Zelenika is recognized as a trade port in the Coastal Development Plan for Montenegro, Radonjić pointed out.