Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the debate on Progress report of the Bureau and the Standing Committee and Observation of the presidential election in Montenegro, which took place at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 24 April 2023.

The UK welcomes the Council of Europe's (CoE) Parliamentary Assembly debate on the Presidential elections in Montenegro. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) observer mission, to which the UK government contributed, concluded the elections overall to be "competitive and well-run".

The UK government supported a local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) to provide election monitoring, reporting of irregularities and broadcast of an early results forecast. The UK will continue to support Montenegro to conduct free and fair democratic processes, including during Parliamentary elections scheduled in June and to encourage Montenegro to strengthen electoral practices in line with ODIHR and CoE recommendations.