DPM Marković in Salzburg: New approach to opening negotiations to result in Montenegro’s better preparedness for EU membership

Strasbourg, France (12 December 2013) -- "Intergovernmental Conference scheduled for 18 December in Brussels does not open only the chapters 23 and 24, but also a new page in EU negotiations, on which, besides further legislative and institutional reforms, Montenegro's starting track records should be printed as well" , Deputy Montenegro’s Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Duško Marković said in his address at the Seventh Meeting of the Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee in Salzburg on Wednesday.

Speaking about the current state of the negotiations and relations between the EU and Montenegro, DPM Marković stated that Montenegro accepts the new negotiating approach openly and proactively, as a positive precedent,stressing that more stringent rules that apply to Montenegro will result in its better preparedness for the EU membership.

"By opening the chapters 23 and 24 at the beginning and closing them at the end of the accession process, more time, as well as expert, technical and other assistance for quality reform will be available to us. The new approach is a political compliment as well, as it makes Montenegro the country that will be setting examples to others, "DPM Marković said.

Recalling that the Lithuanian Presidency in its invitation letter for negotiating position on the chapters 23 and 24 noted that Montenegro at this moment is sufficiently prepared to negotiate, Deputy Prime Minister Marković underlined it is not related only to the action plans as a benchmark for opening the negotiations, and documents as a roadmap for the future, but primarily related to the road Montenegro have travelled to date and the track record it has developed in the pre-negotiation phase.

Montenegro will make success only if it manages to achieve a high degree of awareness of its own responsibility in the process.

"That responsibility is not only a legal or political, but rather an ethical category. It is based on the awareness that each individual interest should be limited by the public interest, and that is the transformation into a modern European society, which is ready to be part of a broad European family," Montenegro’s Deputy Prime Minister concluded.