Photo: Government of Montenegro
The Parliament of Montenegro voted for new Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić and members of his proposed cabinet after opposition parties won enough seats at the last general election. The government includes Minister of Ecology and Spatial and Urban Planning Ratko Mitrović and Minister of Capital Investments Mladen Bojanić, who will be in charge of the energy sector.
Only one person in the new Government of Montenegro officially belongs to a political party. Ratko Mitrović (pictured second right in the back row) and Mladen Bojanić (top right) are now in charge of the sectors covered by Balkan Green Energy News.
The two experts are among the most experienced members of the team under Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić, third left in the front row, also a nonpartisan figure. He has just started his tenure after winning lawmakers’ support to form a technocratic cabinet.
Opposition parties won a thin majority in the Parliament of Montenegro in August, after a three-decade rule of the party led by President Milo Đukanović. Minister Mladen Bojanić is also a seasoned politician, who came in second at the presidential election in 2018, with 33.4% of votes. He hasn’t since been affiliated with any party.
Krivokapić said green economy would be the first of seven policy pillars.
Mitrović denounces small hydropower plant technology after designing them
Minister of Ecology, Spatial and Urban Planning Ratko Mitrović is a professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Montenegro. As he was nominated for the post, environmentalists criticized him for designing numerous small hydropower plants and cofounding two firms in the sector.
Minister Mitrović recently vowed to halt all small hydropower plant construction until a thorough review of their environmental impact
Mitrović replied, in a statement carried by Vijesti, that he stopped working on studies for the controversial facilities more than ten years ago. The architect added he completely changed his views in the meantime about them and hydropower technology overall.
The new minister said environmental protection “must come first” and that he would work on freezing all construction of small hydropower plants until a review of their impact. Bigger hydroelectric units are “only acceptable if the water level in the reservoir isn’t unstable throughout the year,” he claimed.
Mitrović has been researching project management, new technology and materials used for renewable energy production for the past several years. He no longer has business interests in small hydropower, the news outlet said.
Krivokapić said his government would ban the construction of small hydropower plants and review all concessions.
Economy, market expert gets energy in portfolio
Minister of Capital Investments Mladen Bojanić is an economist. He was a prominent opposition politician until 2018 and served as a member of Parliament. The ministry Bojanić will be heading includes the sectors of energy and energy efficiency, as the Ministry of Economy was split.
Bojanić has experience as a broker and dealer in the equity market and he used to be at the helm of Nex Montenegro, a domestic stock exchange operator.
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