PrepCom-1 for the UNCSD Check upon delivery
May 18, 2010
Intervention of Montenegro
by
Mr. Ljubisa Perovic
Head of the Office for Sustainable Development
Government of Montenegro
Session 3: Institutional framework for sustainable development
Distinguished Co-chair, Delegates and Participants,
We align with the opening statement made by the European Union yesterday and other statements
urging for making synergies among many organizations dealing with the topic.
However, what we feel is missing in our rethinking of the global system today is the question of
adequate institutional frameworks for sustainable development at the national level. We support
the efforts to make the UN CSD more successful, and urge for it to be strengthened and have its role
asserted among the other UN agencies and international process. But for the UNCSD to truly make
an impact, it has to ensure that it has reliable partners, which can implement the agreements
forged in this forum. These partners are the individual countries, and only if they have the
adequate internal institutional processes that could hold their governments accountable with
regards to their international commitments, the CSD can be truly successful.
To contribute to thinking about this, in our opinion, this crucial segment of the global SD
institutional framework, we would briefly like to share our experience in setting up a national
institutional system of sustainable development.
Even prior to gaining its independence four years ago, Montenegro invested significant efforts in
identifying the best institutional framework for the implementation of its sustainable development
policies. The first Constitution of Montenegro defines Montenegro as an ecological state. To
implement this concept, the Government formed the National Council for Sustainable
Development, established the Office for Sustainable Development and adopted the National
Strategy of Sustainable Development.
The Council is the key institution of the system, in particular because its 23 members represent all
segments of Montenegrin society. These include the representatives of national and local
governments, civil, academic and business sectors, as well as independent experts. We are aware
that setting up institutions is the easy part, and that our challenge now is to make them effectively
work. In this regard, we would like to share and open for discussion the following three points:
• The first point is that having a multi-stakeholder Council, dealing with sustainable
development as on overarching concept, is one of the key elements for building stronger
bridges between its three pillars.
• The second point is that in order to make these bodies have a true impact on the overall
country policies it is opportune for them to be an integral part of the national decisionmaking
processes in the individual countries. In the case of Montenegro, our Council is
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chaired by the Prime Minister, which gives it political leverage and makes sustainable
development relevant to all sectors of society.
• The third point is that for the success of the national system effective it is desirable to have
an expert institution within the government dealing exclusively with the issues of
sustainable development, but functioning outside the level of ministries. In Montenegro, the
Office for Sustainable Development has such status, which enables it to promote the
integrated approach to the three pillars of sustainable development.
During these three days, we have mentioned the need to uphold many principles, solidarity,
equality, accountability, transparency, precautionary principle. But we missed to highlight one,
which we believe is crucial for reaching sustainability and that is the principle of subsidiarity. The
role of national and sub-national governance is only partially touched by the third question of this
session, and we would urge the Secretariat that in the preparations for the Rio+20 more focus is
placed on this issue.
Thank you for your attention.
