Public bailiffs and other legal professions can gain the trust of the citizens and economy only through their professional, responsible and efficient acting and thus give their full contribution to the efficiency of the overall judicial system, progress and development of the Montenegrin society.

This was the key message at the opening of the two-day conference „Professional conduct and responsibility of public bailiffs - standards and challenges”, which was organised in Budva by the Council of Europe, the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro and the Chamber of Public Bailiffs of Montenegro.

Deputy Prime Minister for political system, interior and foreign policy and Minister of Justice, Zoran Pažin, stated that Montenegro today is at the important milestone, on the way which should lead the society to the European quality of life. „Public bailiffs need to act highly professionally and responsibly in each case, when taking any enforcement or securing actions. Broad jurisdiction of public bailiffs and their key role in exercising the rights and ensuring justice indicate specific importance of their responsible and professional conduct in line with the Code of conduct for public bailiffs“, said Pažin.

Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro, Aivo Orav, said that the responsibility of public bailiffs is important for securing lawfulness and efficiency of the judicial system. „European Union is the key partner of Montenegro in the judicial reform process and we will continue to support Montenegro in the judicial reform activities in the future period“, said Orav.

Head of the Justice Sector Reform Unit of the Council of Europe, Sophio Gelashvili, stated that the adoption of the Code of conduct is just a part of the job which needs to be done. „The more important part, certainly is the implementation of the Code of conduct and how it affects the image of the profession“, said Gelashvili.

Vice-President of the International Union of Judicial Officers, Mathieu Chardon, said that the public bailiffs need to be highly trained and educated and that level of their training shall be the same as for judges and prosecutors. "Set of rules in the area of ethics, discipline and responsibility is needed. Public bailiffs have to be aware that they will be responsible for wrong doing, while citizens, companies and general public have to be aware that public bailiffs shall be sanctioned for the mistake they made which caused problems in the field of enforcement“, said Chardon.

President of the Chamber of Public Bailiffs of Montenegro, Vidak Latković, stated that the public bailiffs were successful in making the enforcement procedure faster and more efficient. „We have received approximately 350.000 cases within the five years of the public bailiffs` s service functioning in Montenegro. Almost half of the received cases have been completely resolved leading to settlement of the money claims amounting to more than 300 million Euro, which makes nearly one third of the total amount of received money claims“, said Latković.

The working sessions “How to address breaches of professional conduct and integrity in the public bailiffs` service“ and “Rules of ethics as anti-corruption mechanisms in the public bailiffs service – regional perspective“ provided platform for the discussion among public bailiffs, judges, representatives of state institutions and business sector in Montenegro on standards and challenges in the area of professional responsibility of public bailiffs.

Montenegrin participants were joined by representatives of the Chambers of public bailiffs of Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia.

Conference has been organised within the Action “Accountability and professionalism of the judicial system in Montenegro” implemented under the joint programme of the European Union and Council of Europe - “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” (Horizontal Facility II).