Request to recuse the judge suspends the 29.2 million euro trial between the state and Budva

The court process between the state and the Municipality of Budva, worth over 29 million euros, has been suspended after the request of the municipality’s representatives for the recusal of the judge, as the Montenegrin portal Vijesti reports. The request, which targets judge Sandra Gjurišić, will be decided by the president of the Basic Court of Kotor, Srđan Klikovac. According to the minutes of the recently held hearing, the recusal request was submitted by the Municipality’s legal representatives, Miroje Jovanoviq and Dushan Radosavljeviq, arguing that the court had refused several key evidence proposals.

At the September 23 hearing, as Vijesti reports, judge Gjurišić refused, among other things, the request to hear several former state and local officials, the economic-financial expertise, and the request to ask the Ministry of Finance to remove the “internal” classification from the Government’s information on the activation of the state guarantee in 2019. The court assessed that the file contains sufficient evidence for decision-making. After this decision, the Municipality’s representatives requested the judge’s recusal, claiming that Budva has been prevented from “participating effectively in the procedure,” that it has been placed in an unequal position, and that the impression is being created that the court has already formed an opinion on the case. The process has been interrupted until the decision of the president of the Basic Court in Kotor.

For the protector of the state’s property-legal interests, Bojana Ćirović, the new recusal request is a continuation of the Municipality’s previous practice, which submits such requests on the eve of the conclusion of the procedure. “The representatives change, but the behavior of the defendant (the Municipality of Budva) remains the same. Therefore I assess this request too as oriented toward delaying the procedure,” Ćirović declared for Vijesti. She warns that the delay, if the state ultimately wins the trial, will further increase the burden on the Municipality’s budget: “Delaying the procedure harms mainly the Municipality of Budva itself. On the claim of over 29 million euros, statutory interest is calculated. Every month that the conclusion of the trial is postponed increases the amount that the Municipality will have to pay in the end, and together with it the burden for the Municipality’s budget and its citizens.”

The state has sued the Municipality for the collection of 29.2 million euros, the amount that the Government of Dushko Markoviq paid on the basis of the state guarantee for the wastewater treatment plant project in Beçiçi. As Vijesti reports, the Assembly of the Municipality of Budva last October approved, with the votes of the governing majority, the proposal of mayor Nikolla Jovanoviq for a settlement in the arbitration procedure that was under way between the Municipality and the German firm WTE. Jovanoviq declared at the time that with the approved agreement all existing disputes are extinguished and concluded, but he did not say that with the agreement the debt of over 29 million euros that the Municipality owes the Government, in the name of the activated state guarantees, was accepted.

The procedure before the court has lasted since 2021, while the first court decision was given in mid-2023 and was in favor of the state. The Municipality of Budva appealed that decision of the Basic Court of Kotor, on the grounds that the municipality’s arbitration procedures with WTE were ongoing. Although the Arbitration Court in Geneva had decided 20 days earlier, the High Court in Podgorica on February 1, 2024 annulled the first-instance decision and returned the case for retrial. The Municipality of Budva and mayor Nikolla Jovanoviq in mid-July addressed to the Government and prime minister Millojko Spajiq the request that the state withdraw from this court procedure, to avoid the eventual blocking of Budva’s account.

Answering the newsroom’s questions, Ćirović said that judge Gjurišić was assigned the case on September 18, 2025, while the representatives who requested her recusal on September 23 of this year had not requested it before. According to her, the Municipality, through its previous representatives, had twice requested the recusal of the previous judge Darka Vukaniq. She recalled that the Municipality had previously also requested the recusal of the acting judge and of the acting president of the Basic Court of Kotor, as well as of the president of the High Court in Podgorica and of the president of the Court of Appeal, but all these requests were refused or dismissed, Vijesti reports.