The steering committee members for the Horizontal Facility Actions in Education in Montenegro gathered for the third time in Podgorica on 8 November to discuss the current status of the projects' activities and the way forward.

The meeting was opened by the Head of Operations in the Council of Europe Programme Office in Podgorica, Angela Longo. Speaking about the implementation of the Horizontal Facility projects in Montenegro, she highlighted the involvement of the local community as an added value of the democratic school culture project. She also praised the cooperation of the Ministry of Education and Council of Europe in developing the Law on Academic Integrity.

Presenting the status of activities within the Action “Strengthen Integrity and Combat Corruption in Higher Education”, Vesna Atanasova from the Council of Europe Education Department, said that a number of substantial activities such as the development of the academic integrity law, a study visit to Geneva and public debates with students and academic staff, will take place during the next reporting period. The presence of Montenegrin representatives at the Council of Europe Platform on Ethics, Transparency and Integrity in Education meetings was noted as very important for sharing the best practices and experiences with the member states specialists in higher education. She encouraged beneficiary institutions to provide inputs and suggestions to both Actions thus enhancing the national ownership.

On the second Action on fostering democratic school culture key developments such as the functioning of the Pilot Schools Network, the trainings delivered, national and regional conferences and the “Inclusive day” celebration were reported. As outlined at the meeting, the ultimate ambition of the project intervention is to upscale experiences from schools to the policy level.

The steering committee members concluded that the sustainability of the projects’ results must be ensured and shared ideas for follow up interventions.