On July 22, 2011, the Parliament of Montenegro enacted a new Law on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO Law), which replaced the 1999 NGO Law (subsequently revised in 2002 and 2007, respectively).
The new NGO Law is a significant improvement from the previous one on a number of important points. Among others:
- it requires only three natural or legal persons (as opposed to five), foreign or domestic to establish an association;
- it permits children at the age of 14 and above to also be founders of an association, with the consent of their legal guardian;
- it requires that only one founder of an association must have residence or place in business in Montenegro;
- it decriminalizes informal associations (i.e., those which do not seek to register and thus obtain the legal entity status);
- it clarifies the mandatory content of the founding act and the by-laws of both associations and foundations, as well as conditions under which an organization can directly engage in economic activities, thereby reducing the unwarranted discretionary power of the registration authority in this respect;
- it clarifies conditions for the dissolution of associations and foundations, thereby affording them a greater legal protection.
ECNL played a critical role in the drafting of the Law in that it exposed the members of the working group, which was commissioned to prepare a draft Law, to international standards and regional best practices pertinent to freedom of association and legal status of foundations. In addition, ECNL was intimately involved in the very process of drafting of the Law. In his televised expose on the draft Law in Parliament, the Ministry of Interior Affairs made specific reference to the role ECNL played in ensuring that the Law complies with international standards and regional best practices.