DPM Lukšić hosts traditional New Year's reception for diplomatic corps

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Excellencies,

Media representatives,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Allow me first to greet you and thank you for being here at the now traditional New Year’s reception hosted by the MFAEI for the diplomatic corps. In summarising the previous year and making preparations for the next, one instinctively contemplates by looking at the previous and future challenges. I wonder if it is due to the technological progress and globalisation, but the challenges now seem more complex and less one way directed. By searching for answers and looking back on the year behind us, we recall the achievements but also, to ensure accountability, we try to identify any shortcomings in the previous period. This, I believe, gives wind to our sails and pushes us to be even better in the year ahead of us.

The previous year, 2013, was no exception in the sense of the demanding tasks we had to face. We continued with our intensive foreign policy activities, which are based on the traditional values of the Montenegrin society and our national interest. I believe we may highlight that we have had a successful European and Euro-Atlantic year.

We continued developing and improving bilateral relations with our neighbours, members of the EU and NATO, and a range of most developed and influential countries. We continued moving forward in good pace towards our strategic national interests, EU and NATO membership, which ensure safety and stability, good institutional development, and a solid basis for long-term economic prosperity. There can be no long-term economic development unless we complete our tasks related to the establishment of the rule of law system. Regardless of what has been done thus far, and plenty has been done, it is evident that this is an ongoing process, but one that entails not only verbal but substantial understanding and real-life application of the standards and behaviours prevailing in the developed countries. Excuses for many thingshave been exhausted.

In other words, we must continue implementing key reforms that should help bring Europe into every home and institution, and ensure that we are guided by a standard that means respect for the rule of law and rights of every citizen. Integration process cannot be successful if our citizens do not understand it. Integration into both the EU and NATO is merely a formalisation of the efforts to ensure a better quality of life.

Successful completion of the screening process, the establishment of the negotiation structure that includes 1300 experts from various areas – civil servants and civil society representatives – the temporary closure of two accession negotiations, and the preparation of seven new negotiation positions: these were the dominant EU integration activities in 2013.

The crucial, fundamental share of these efforts was related to the preparations for opening accession Chapters 23 and 24, which are the basis of the new approach to accession negotiations, the approach launched with Montenegro which will surely have implications on other regional countries. The creation of Action Plans, which was a complex process, and their implementation in the area of constitutional amendments, created preconditions enabling us to open these chapters in a few days. This will be a turning point of the negotiation process and an intro into a steady opening of all negotiation chapters in two years’ time.

I wish to remind you that in the past six months we have worked continuously towards drafting the Montenegro EU Accession Programme 2014-2018, which will be our signpost pointing towards EU membership. We also started preparing the Communication Strategy on informing the public on the EU and preparations for membership, under the motto “Me4 EU, EU4Me.” It is therefore crucial to unite all society’s potentials when it comes to informing our citizens on the process.

We may also boast a high level of success in using funds made available by the European Commission for the period 2007-2013 through IPA, and drawing from this experience we started the preparations for applying for programmes of the new financial perspective 2014-2020 which should amount to EUR 35 million annually on average.

Ladies and gentlemen,

When it comes to Euro-Atlantic integration, we maintained continuity in key area reforms and made notable progress in the previous Membership Action Plan (MAP), followed by the implementation of the IV annual Action Plan, and the successful completion of the US-Adriatic Charter membership, which is a key regional cooperation mechanism, and we continued our participation in peace missions thus providing our contribution to global security.

Our reform activities focused on four key areas: strengthening the rule of law, intelligence sector reform, defence sector reform, and improving public support and understanding of NATO integration through public dialogue, which is our priority in the time to come. I believe we will be able in the next half-year, in the run-up to the summit, whether the summit discussed enlargement or not, to say that Montenegro is ready for membership. Clarity, consistency, and transparency of our policy have been Montenegro’s hallmarks and I believe contributed to the development of trust and good relations with all relevant international stakeholders. Montenegro’s interests are clear, and this is the best framework for all who want to cooperate with us enabling us to find a realistic and sustainable angle of cooperation.

Our proclaimed foreign policy interest is focused on regional cooperation which is among other things a precondition for successful integration. Our countries’ integration achievements point to a need to work additionally to improve quality, and especially to develop project-oriented cooperation. This shared interest is evident primarily in the need to boost communication in the area of infrastructure, removing business barriers, and fighting organised crime. This is why the idea of establishing an informal consultative mechanism – the Western Balkan Six – is aimed precisely at facilitating the road to EU membership and ensuring the success of the South East Europe 2020 Strategy, and thereby the success of regional initiatives such as South East Europe Cooperation Process (SEECP).

This is crucial in order to continue with the Thessaloniki Agenda, whose first chapter ended with Croatia’s accession to the EU earlier this year. Croatia’s success is an incentive for all of us to continue with our endeavours. The current 6+1 in the region should in the future become 0+7, and there is plenty of work to be done. Balkans’ atavisms of the past are still around and the only force solving this issue is integration process towards EU and NATO. At the same time, the biggest responsibility lies with the political leaders of the region’s countries. We cannot expect the support and understanding of our partners if we also expect them to provide solutions to our own problems. Leaders need to struggle for solutions and explain them to citizens.Myopic political benefits cannot overshadow the interests of the future generations. No one has a right to do that.

Distinguished guests,

In the past year Montenegro has been a participant in the most relevant international developments.

In multilateral fora we have been recognised for our commitment to the preservation of peace and security and respect for human rights, which has been confirmed among other things by Montenegro’s appointment to the UN Human Rights Council. We strengthened our presence in Geneva and the visibility in the UN system, confirming responsibility towards member-states and fulfilling the Council’s mandate with a special effort investment in solving the numerous problems of the Mediterranean region. We are ready to put Montenegro’s transition experience at the disposal of the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and others who have an interest in ensuring that the cradle of our civilisation, the Mediterranean, is an area of prosperity, and not one of security threats and illegal migration challenges.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Turning back to the MFAEI topics, let me also say that by establishing Directorate General for Economic Diplomacy and by adopting the Plan for Development of Economic Diplomacy, we have created a supporting mechanism to Montenegrin institutions and companies for an efficient promotion of Montenegro’s economic interests abroad, and also a framework for support to foreign partners and companies.

In expanding our diplomatic network, we have met our plan of opening embassies in Bulgaria, Romania, and Kosovo, currently headed by a chargé d’affaires, and early next year we will open a Consulate General in Munich. We are creating preconditions to open an embassy in Argentina, which will gather Montenegrin descendants in South America and boost economic cooperation with this part of the world. In the future, we will seek in partnership with regional countries the possibility to open an embassy in Ukraine, a Scandinavian country, and Spain.

We have also worked on developing our diplomatic network through non-residential representations across Europe and in G20 and OECD countries where we do not have missions, as well as to a range of multilateral organisations: Organisation of American States, African Union, ASEAN, and we recently received observant status at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. We are aware that in this way we are opening the possibility for further cultural and economic cooperation, and especially for attracting foreign investors from around the world.

All of this contributes to the creation of long-term preconditions for rounding off our network and ensuring Montenegro’s presence wherever there is our interest.

And last, but certainly not the least, by taking care of our diaspora, we have transformed the Centre for Diaspora and established a separate Directorate for Diaspora at the MFAEI, thus creating preconditions for the continuation of the successful implementation of the Strategy for Cooperation with Diaspora and the 2010 Action Plan. We have established the Council for Cooperation with the Diaspora at the MFAEI, and we are in the final phase of the drafting of the Law on Cooperation with Diaspora.

I hope this overview of previous activities has not been too much having in mind the celebratory character of our traditional cocktail, and I hope it allows you to identify our plans for the future. Allow me therefore to thank you once again for being here, for our excellent cooperation in the previous period, and allow me to voice hope it will continue in the future. At the same time, I would like to emphasise that the Ministry doors are open for you 24/7 and by wishing you all the best in 2014, let me thank you for your attention.