Montenegro makes progress in coordinating EU pre-accession support, IPA monitoring council concludes

Podgorica, Montenegro (12 December 2012) – The sixth meeting of the Council for monitoring IPA implementation was held in Podgorica on Tuesday. The meeting was chaired by national IPA coordinator Aleksandar Andrija Pejović, on behalf of Montenegro’s Government, and Director for Montenegro, Croatia, Iceland, and Turkey at the DG Enlargement Alejandra Cas Granje, on behalf of the European Commission.

The meetings discussed strategic planning, programming and implementation of projects under the National IPA Programme 2007 – 2013 in all five IPA components: transition assistance and institution building, cross-border cooperation, regional development, human recourses, and agriculture and rural development.

Montenegro has made significant progress in coordinating EU pre-accession support, the meeting concluded, pointing out the challenges ahead, especially in terms of strengthening administrative capacities, as well as providing co-financing and preparations for new financial perspective for the period 2014-2020.

It was underlined that the introduction of a decentralized system represents a challenge and that in the coming period it is necessary to boost cooperation between departments to ensure that all the structures are better prepared for the transfer of management of European funds from the European Commission to the Montenegrin structures.