Parliamentary Internship Program
In Montenegro, the leaders of tomorrow are making a difference today.
Ten of the country’s brightest university students have chosen to spend their free time – when not studying for exams or working at part-time jobs – conducting research, taking minutes at meetings, acting as tour guides, and performing numerous other tasks, all in the name of making Montenegro a better place to live. These jacks-of-all-trades are the current class of parliamentary interns, and they provide the long understaffed lawmaking institution with energetic young people who possess the research, language, technological, and analytical skills necessary to adopt legislation that improves people’s lives and that brings Montenegro closer to becoming a member of the European Union.
Interns have helped demystify the work of parliament by leading public tours of the institution for students and ordinary citizens, and by taking minutes at committee meetings. They have contributed to the legislative process by conducting research and drafting policy analyses, on such topics as the participation of ethnic minorities in neighboring parliaments and the salaries of members of parliament (MPs) in neighboring parliaments. They have helped promote regional cooperation by organizing the logistics for visiting dignitaries and politicians. Perhaps most significantly, they have improved the efficiency with which parliament operates by providing the institution, which has less full time staff members than MPs, with much-needed human resources, at times filling in for sick staff members and performing their duties.
The internship program is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and managed by the Center for Democratic Transition, a Montenegrin non-governmental organization that partners with the National Democratic Institute, the University of Montenegro, and Parliament to implement the program. Over the course of its six years of existence, 50 students have taken part in the program, some of whom have gone on to careers in government or to become political party officials.
“I was immediately treated as an equal member of the Committee to which I was assigned. My most important duty was to comment on draft laws, and my suggestions and objections were always valued and considered, which I really appreciated! It was a great experience, and one that taught me a lot about parliament,” said Milivoje Krivokapić, an intern in 2007.
The success of the parliamentary internship program has spawned imitators, with government ministries and the executive branch establishing similar programs in the last year. As these programs have grown in popularity and attracted more and more applicants, it has become clear that Montenegro’s young people want to be involved as the country implements important democratic reforms. It seems Montenegro’s future is in good hands.