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РусскийUpdated home craft regulations, new workshop standards, food waste reduction targets, and drinking water safety
In early September 2026, Montenegro updated its regulatory framework for artisans and small businesses, revising the list of crafts permitted in residential premises and setting new technical standards for commercial workshops and beauty salons. Additionally, the legislature established statutory food waste reduction targets, enacted a comprehensive law on drinking water safety, and relaxed qualification requirements for Special State Prosecutors.
Domestic and Foreign Trade
Mandatory criteria and operational conditions for performing craft activities in residential premises have been updated.
The updated rulebook revises the legal criteria under which artisans may conduct business directly from residential dwellings without reclassifying the property as commercial space. Under Art. 2, the work process must not require specialized production facilities, must rely predominantly on manual labor or handheld tools, and must focus on artistic creations or the repair and finishing of small-scale items. The deployment of high-capacity industrial machinery and serial industrial manufacturing in residential units remains strictly prohibited.
An updated schedule of designated crafts authorized for home-based operation has been established.
Replacing the previous schedule, an updated closed list of craft professions permitted in residential premises has entered into force. The list includes photographers, watchmakers, piano tuners, opticians, seal engravers, as well as artisans crafting jewelry, decorative items, textiles, lace, embroidery, knitwear, and traditional national costumes pursuant to Annex 1. The measure streamlines business registration for home-based sole proprietors.
General Business Regulations
Minimum technical, utility, and sanitation standards for commercial craft premises and workshops have been revised.
New regulations define the baseline technical conditions governing business premises, tools, and equipment used for commercial craft activities. Facilities must comply with spatial planning codes and provide adequate ventilation, natural or artificial lighting, mandatory water and power grid connections, sanitary facilities, and dedicated infrastructure for source-separated waste collection under Art. 5. The requirements apply to both existing and newly registered commercial craft businesses.
A specific regulatory category for crafts with elevated hygiene risk has been established, subject to stricter sanitary standards.
Craft activities involving direct contact with the human body, food products, or biological materials are now formally classified as carrying elevated hygiene risk. This category covers hairdressers, beauty salons, bakeries, confectionery shops, and butcheries under Art. 22. Facilities operating in these sectors are subject to rigorous sanitation, surface disinfection, and equipment sterilization protocols.
Environmental Law
Statutory food waste reduction targets through December 31, 2035, and donation incentives for food redistribution have been introduced.
The Waste Management Law has been amended to introduce binding national benchmarks for reducing food waste by the end of 2035: a 10% reduction in primary production and processing, alongside a 30% per-capita reduction across retail, hospitality, food services, and households. To achieve these targets, the framework introduces standardized measurement methodologies and incentivizes the surplus redistribution of safe food to charities and food banks. The obligations directly impact food manufacturers, supermarket chains, restaurants, and hotels under Art. 28, effective September 8, 2026.
Waste transport waybills and carrier registry excerpts may now be issued and presented in digital format.
Commercial entities and sole proprietors engaged in waste collection and logistics are now authorized to generate and carry statutory transport documentation in electronic form. Replacing the mandatory physical paper records, updated Art. 19 allows digital carrier registry confirmations and e-transport forms during operations. This reduces administrative overhead for municipal utilities and private freight operators.
New legal concepts covering online platforms, fulfillment providers, and extended producer responsibility for textiles have been introduced.
The law's definitions have been expanded to incorporate modern digital trade and circular economy mechanisms, defining online platforms, unsold consumer goods, fulfillment service providers, and social economy entities. Furthermore, it establishes the statutory basis for extended producer responsibility (EPR) across the textile and apparel sector under Art. 7. This empowers future secondary legislation to enforce packaging and unsold inventory recovery obligations on e-commerce operators.
Healthcare
A new framework law establishes mandatory drinking water safety parameters and risk management protocols for public utilities.
The newly enacted legislation creates a harmonized system governing the safety and quality of water intended for human consumption. It establishes microbiological and chemical safety parameters, mandatory risk assessments across the entire distribution network, and strict public notification protocols whenever water quality values deviate from legal thresholds under Art. 1. Public water supply operators are required to implement preventative safety plans and infrastructure maintenance.
Regulatory exemptions have been established for private individual wells and certified mineral waters.
Individual, non-commercial water sources such as private residential wells and local springs are exempt from the law's administrative obligations, provided the water is not supplied for commercial activities or public facilities. Certified natural mineral and medicinal waters also remain excluded from this framework, as they continue to be regulated by dedicated medicinal and packaged beverage legislation pursuant to Art. 2. The law entered into force on September 8, 2026.
Judicial Authorities
The minimum judicial or prosecutorial experience required for appointment as a Special Prosecutor has been lowered from 10 to 6 years.
Statutory qualification requirements for appointments within the Special State Prosecution Office (SDT) have been modified. Eligible candidates must now possess at least 6 years of professional experience as a state prosecutor or judge (reduced from the previous 10-year threshold), or at least 10 years of general legal practice following the bar examination under Art. 13. The amendment aims to expand the talent pool and accelerate recruitment for anti-corruption and organized crime caseloads.
The Chief Special Prosecutor has been granted the right to appeal case reassignments to the Prosecutorial Council.
To safeguard the institutional autonomy of the Special State Prosecution Office, new procedural checks have been enacted. If the Supreme State Prosecutor reassigns cases or investigative actions from the SDT to the Supreme State Prosecution Office, the Chief Special Prosecutor is entitled to file a formal objection with the Prosecutorial Council. The Council must resolve the objection within 15 days, with the Supreme State Prosecutor recused from deliberations under Art. 4.
Budget and Tax Law
The temporary reduced excise duty rate on unleaded gasoline was set at €0.494 per liter (€494.10 per 1,000 liters).
The Government of Montenegro adopted a targeted decision maintaining a reduced excise rate on unleaded motor gasoline (customs tariff codes 2710 12 31, 2710 12 41, 2710 12 45, 2710 12 49, and 2710 12 70). The duty was established at €494.10 per 1,000 liters (€0.494 per liter) pursuant to Art. 2. The regulation entered into force immediately upon publication in the Official Gazette to mitigate retail fuel price volatility at filling stations.