Around EUR 6.7 million has been poured into a special account intended for the development of less developed municipalities since the beginning of the year, through the economic citizenship program, but it is not known whether this money will be transferred to the state coffers, the Action for Social Justice announced.
It is not known how that money will be used and whether the Government will transfer it to the state coffers – said the ASP. According to ASP data, the account had 33 million EUR at the end of last year, 1.4 million at the beginning of February, 4 million by the end of March, 4.4 million at the beginning of April, and less than 6.7 million at the beginning of May.
At the beginning of the year, the public learned that the minority government had transferred the money received from economic citizenship to the state coffers, but it is not known the legal basis on which this was done and whether, in this way, less developed municipalities will practically be left without that income – they said. kiz of ASP.
They reminded that since 2020, the money has been flowing to the Investment Agency in a special account for the development of less developed local self-government units, all according to the decision on the criteria, method and procedure for selecting persons who can acquire Montenegrin citizenship by admission for the implementation of a special investment program from a special importance for economic and economic interest of Montenegro. That decision ceased to be valid at the end of last year.
The program of economic citizenship, for which Montenegro suffered criticism from international addresses, was initiated at one time by the former government of the Democratic Party of Socialists, and continued by later governments.
Considering that by the beginning of this month, the total amount collected is around EUR 40 million, it is clear that this money could have been seriously used for their development, especially in the north, where the extent of the collapse is staggering and where young people leave in search of work and even a decent life – they said from ASP.
They added that last year, Prime Minister Dritan Abazović invited municipalities to nominate projects and that they would receive EUR 1 million for them, but without detailing the criteria by which this would be done. In the meantime, it is a big unknown whether less developed municipalities will practically remain short-handed in obtaining money from economic passports – ASP stated.
