Position dated 5 September 2026. Status: In force. Instrument: Zakon o dopuni Zakona o koncesijama (Law supplementing the Law on Concessions), Official Gazette of Montenegro 119/2026, published 11 August 2026, in force 19 August 2026. Base statute: Gazette 8/09, 73/19, 125/23, 82/24 and 82/25.
Anyone who has negotiated a marina berth, a hotel site on state land or a small hydro scheme in Montenegro has had the same conversation about the concession fee: can it move with the business, or must it be a flat annual number written into the contract? Until 19 August the statute did not answer. It regulated the fee without describing its structure, so the answer depended on who you asked and which model the grantor had used last. Two short paragraphs have now put the structure in the law.
What the text says
The amending law has two articles. Article 1 inserts three new paragraphs into Article 58 of the base statute, after its second paragraph:
Paragraph 3 states that the concession fee may consist of a fixed and a variable part. Paragraph 4 defines the fixed part as an amount calculated "as a predefined revenue in accordance with the contract" — a figure the grantor receives whatever the year brings. Paragraph 5 defines the variable part as calculated "in relation to the concessionaire's revenues or another business parameter in accordance with the contract".
Article 2 sets entry into force on the eighth day after publication, which is 19 August 2026 and matches the gazette's own record.
| Element | Article | What it now says |
|---|---|---|
| Two-part fee permitted | 58(3) | Fee may consist of a fixed and a variable part |
| Fixed part | 58(4) | A predefined revenue, set by the contract |
| Variable part | 58(5) | Linked to the concessionaire's revenue or another business parameter |
| Rate, floor, cap | — | Not in the text |
| Entry into force | 2 | 19 August 2026 |
The phrase to sit with is "or another business parameter". The statute does not list the parameters. It does not say revenue must be the base, and it does not confine the variable part to turnover. A berth count, an installed capacity, a bed-night figure or a throughput number are all capable of being the parameter if the contract says so. The law supplies the permission; the drafting supplies the economics.
What the text does not say
It sets no percentage, no floor and no ceiling. There is no minimum fixed component, no maximum variable share and no formula. A model that is ninety per cent fixed and one that is ninety per cent variable are, on this text, equally lawful.
It is also silent on running concessions. The amendment carries no transitional provision — only the entry-into-force article — so whether an existing concession contract can be moved onto a two-part fee, and on what terms, is not something we can show from this statute. That question belongs to the contract and to the general law on amending it, and we will not guess at the answer here.
The third gap is definitional. "Revenues" is not defined for this purpose: gross or net, with or without VAT, at the level of the concessionaire or of a project company. In a fee that floats on that number, the definition is the deal.
Our reading
Treat the fixed part as the number that survives a bad year. It is described as a predefined revenue for the grantor, which is another way of saying it is payable whether or not the marina fills or the resort opens on time. In a project whose first three years are construction, a fixed component sized for a mature operating year is a financing problem, and the place to solve it is the payment schedule rather than the rate.
The variable part is where the amendment actually helps an investor. Before it, a grantor with an appetite for upside had a weaker basis in the statute for asking for it, and the safe answer was a higher flat fee. Now the upside can be priced where it arises, which should make the fixed floor easier to argue down. If you are structuring a tourism or marina project, our hotel investment page sets out how we work through the permit and contract chain around it.
What did not change
The rest of Article 58 stands, and so does the concession regime around it: the subject matter of concessions, the award procedure and the grantor's powers are untouched by this amendment. The statute still does not price a concession; it now describes how a price may be built. Existing contracts are not rewritten by the amendment, and nothing in the two articles creates a duty to renegotiate. The base statute's gazette chain — 8/09, 73/19, 125/23, 82/24 and 82/25 — is unchanged apart from the three new paragraphs.
How to verify
The Government's bill, with the full text and the explanatory memorandum, is in the Assembly's file for EPA 891 XXVIII: zakoni.skupstina.me/zakoni/web/app.php/akt/4061. Open the first document in the list — the Government's submission of 25 February 2026 — and read Article 1, which begins "U Zakonu o koncesijama". The three inserted paragraphs are quoted there in full, and the memorandum that follows explains the constitutional basis in Article 16(1)(5).
The file also settles a question you should always ask of an adopted text: no amendment document appears in it, so the law as passed is the text the Government tabled. The gazette record gives publication on 11 August 2026 and entry into force on 19 August 2026, which is exactly the eighth day the final article requires. We follow this file under Legal Updates.
