Bearing in mind the importance of transparent and proactive communication between prosecution authorities and citizens, back in 2019 the European Union and Council of Europe supported the development of a comprehensive Communication Strategy of the State Prosecution and Prosecutorial Council for the period 2020 – 2022, with accompanying Action Plans for 2021 and 2022.

Over the past two years, important activities from those Action Plans have been implemented in co-operation with the Prosecutorial Council, Supreme State Prosecution Office and Judicial Training Centre, including through training courses for press prosecutors and the development of Guidelines for Crisis Communication which were adopted by the Prosecutorial Council in December 2020.

With a view of further supporting authorities in building prosecutors’ communication skills and thus contributing to enhancing public trust in the work of the prosecution, a workshop was held on 17-18 October in Budva.

At the workshop, representatives of prosecution service and new Prosecutorial Council assessed the results of the implementation of ongoing Communication Strategy and drafted the objectives, milestones and indicators of the new Strategy for the period 2023 – 2025, with the support of a local Council of Europe consultant. The workshop for drafting a concrete Action Plan for 2023 will be held by mid-November.

This activity is being implemented under the action “Accountability and professionalism of the judicial system in Montenegro” which is a part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe Programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019 – 2022”.