Minister Damjanović presents the Institute at “Montenegro’s EU Integration“ diplomatic briefing

Within the “Montenegro’s EU Integration” diplomatic briefing, held today at Vila Gorica, Minister of Science Dr. Sanja Damjanović presented the status of the regional project for the establishment of the South-East Europe International Institute for Sustainable Technologies, as well as the activities planned for the coming period. In addition to the ambassadors, Aivo Orav, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro, also took part in the briefing.

At the beginning of the briefing, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Prof. Dr. Srđan Darmanović spoke with the ambassadors. At the meeting, the European perspective of Montenegro was discussed, with particular reference to the recently published EU Enlargement Strategy, as well as the importance of the visits to the Region by the highest European officials, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn.

Within her presentation, Minister Damjanović introduced the ambassadors to both options of the institute: Hadron Cancer Therapy and the 4th generation Synchrotron Radiation Light Source, explaining the economic, social and political benefits for project members that would be created by the establishment of this large scientific research infrastructure in the Region.

On this occasion, the Minister of Science and at the same time the Chairperson of the Project’s Steering Committee, announced the preparation of a draft Memorandum on Cooperation at the Level of Prime Ministers, which should be signed at the EU-WB Summit in Sofia in May 2018.

In the discussion that followed the presentation, similar scientific research projects in Europe were mentioned, as well as the possibility of sharing experiences with these excellent scientific research teams.

Previously, the Government of Montenegro was the first to officially support the Initiative for the Establishment of the International Institute in late March 2017, only a few months after it was originally proposed by Professor Herwig Schopper, former Director General of CERN.

The Declaration of Intent was signed on 25 October 2017 in CERN by eight countries of the Region. In January 2018, a Forum was held at the ICTP International Institute in Trieste, where the conceptual designs were presented for two proposed options for the first time. More than 100 participants took part in the Forum, including the European Commission’s high representatives (Robert-Jan Smits, Director-General of DG Research and Innovation), the IAEA, the RCC, the President of ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures), as well as high representatives of the scientific community.