PM Marković at first session of London Summit: WB makes serious progress, but must work to create better perspective for young people

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Prime Minister Duško Marković said today that the Western Balkans has brought many positive developments over the past year and a half, but that the leaders of the countries of the region must continue to cooperate in order to create new opportunities, primarily for opening new jobs and creating a better perspective for young people.

What is quite certain is that, five years after launching the Berlin Process – Chancellor Angela Merkel's initiative – we have made a serious progress in the Region that has been manifested in several key areas over the past year and a half: in the new European Commission's strategy on the Western Balkans, new enlargement package and, of course, the EU - Western Balkans Summit in Sofia. Today, we agreed that we should continue to pursue these documents and success to create a new opportunity for the Western Balkans to ensure economic growth, development and new jobs, Prime Minister Duško Marković said in a public statement following the first session.

At the first discussion held during the working lunch, the Prime Minister assessed that all the leaders in the region must do more to create a better perspective for young people.

Young people are the biggest capital we have in the Western Balkans. We need to do more to create new opportunities for them, and these new opportunities are possible if the economy is progressing and if we create new jobs. We in Montenegro do this through the Berlin Process, last year's economic growth was 4.3, and in the first quarter of this year 4.5 percent. Thousands of jobs are being created for young people. In tourism, which participates with 24% in our GDP, we have very high quality jobs - in five months we have opened 1,000, and over the past years we have opened 26,000 small and medium enterprises. But our people are not ready to work at those positions, the Prime Minister said. He added that there is still an awareness that it is better to work for the civil service for less money than in the private sector for twice as much.

It means that the private sector has not yet earned the trust of young people. Therefore, in Montenegro we proposed at the last Cabinet session a moratorium on public sector employment, the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister thanked the Prime Ministers of Bulgaria and the United Kingdom, Boyko Borissov and Theresa May, on the organisation of the previous and today's summit, aimed at further progress in the region.

Speaking about the prospects in the immediate future, Prime Minister Duško Marković welcomed the initiative of European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Johannes Hahn on the idea of energy projects being financed by joint procedures.

As far as Montenegro is concerned, you have our full support in this approach, PM Marković concluded.

Alongside the Prime Ministers of the Western Balkans Six, the Summit is attended by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May, Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, Federal Chancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz, Prime Ministers of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov, Poland Mateusz Morawiecki, Croatia Andrej Plenković, Slovenia Miroslav Cerar, President of the European Bank for the Reconstruction and Development Suma Chakrabarti, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Johannes Hahn, as well as top officials of Italy and France.

PUBLIC RELATIONS SERVICE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO