Sources familiar with the matter have indicated that the contentious articles prohibiting reporting on debt should be removed from the proposed amendments to the Capital Market Law.

The Ministry of Finance, the official proponent of these amendments, will act accordingly after the European Commission sought clarification on this matter.

These amendments are set to be reviewed at today’s session of the Legislative and Economic Committees of the Parliament of Montenegro.

Yesterday, Civis MP Maja Vučelić submitted amendments in parliamentary procedure advocating for the removal of these controversial articles. Comments from the Ministry of Finance regarding these articles are also anticipated.

Vučelić has proposed the deletion of Article 45.

“The draft law amending the Capital Market Law suggests a ban on the publication of data and estimates regarding government securities from the time of preparation until the official announcement by the Ministry of Finance upon the conclusion of the issuance procedure.”

“The European Union has regulations governing the protection of inside information, as specified in Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 of April 16, 2014, on market abuse, and repealing Directive 2003/6/EC, among others.”

“As Montenegro is in the provisional closure phase of negotiating Chapter 9, which entails implementing Regulation 596/2014, along with the European Commission’s request to defer the prohibition on publishing issuance information to a later phase of negotiations, it is proposed that this article be deleted,” is the rationale behind this amendment.

She has also suggested the removal of Article 128, which outlined a penalty policy for publishing borrowing information.

“Article 407a proposes imposing fines on legal or natural persons who publish material information and other data that may influence potential investors’ willingness to purchase government debt securities from the issue preparation phase until the official conclusion announcement by the designated state administration body. With the prior suggestion to delete Articles 92a and 93b, it is necessary to remove this article too,” explains the amendment.

On May 28, Vijesti reported that the Government added two articles to the proposed amendments to the Capital Market Law without a public discussion, which prohibit disclosing information, data, and estimates related to government securities issuance, along with other related data from the preparation phase to conclusion, the publication of which “could affect potential investors’ willingness to buy government debt securities.”

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