Chief Negotiator Drljević: Adoption of Election Laws by mid-November

European Union expects from Montenegro adoption of Election laws. The Democrats and the URA representatives have not so far participated in The Committee on Comprehensive Reform of the Election and Other Legislation even they initiated its formation, despite calls from top relevant international and domestic addresses. Chief Negotiator Aleksandar Drljević expects that work will be completed by mid-November.

"I sincerely believe that we in Montenegro also have the awareness, will and capacity to prepare the laws that are expected of us, not only because that is expected of us, but to carry out an electoral process in Montenegro that will be gratifying all actors", Drljević stressed.

According to the latest CEDEM report, support for European integration among Montenegrin citizens has fallen by about 5 %, but as the Chief Negotiator Drljević explained, this is understandable given the duration of the negotiation process.

"This was the situation, not only in case of Montenegro, but also of other countries that joined the European Union, as the date of accession was approaching, support has been decreasing. It is significant that this support is well above 50%, and this further encourages us to be on the right track and to continue to carry out reform activities when it comes to the European integration process", Drljević underlined.

In May, Elections for the European Parliament were held and a new structure was recently elected to the European Commission. The Chief Negotiator considers the election result to be encouraging.

"Certainly, what can make us happy is that the elections to the European Parliament have shown that, at the level of the Member States and at the level of the future convocation of the European Parliament, the pro-European forces have a large majority", Drljević noted.

Answering the question of whether Montenegrin citizens should be concerned by the statement of the Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović that he is concerned by the EU's fatigue from enlargement, which he recently assessed at the Sarajevo Summit, given that Montenegro is waiting for 2025 as a leader in integrations in the region, Drljević said it was a year set in the Enlargement Strategy as a horizon framework by which Montenegro could become an EU member.

Commenting on the issue that during his recent address to Parliament, one of the complaints was that the process of accession to the European Union lasts too long, Drljević said that we should not forget that Montenegro was negotiating at one specific moment that cannot be compared with previous waves of enlargement.

"All these circumstances, as well as developments that have been active at EU and Member State level, such as Brexit, the economic crisis, the migrant crisis have in some way affected the length of the process", the chief negotiator assessed.

Montenegro still has one more chapter to open: Chapter 8 - Competition.

Chief Negotiator Drljević said that it was one of the most demanding chapters and emphasized that Montenegro had fulfilled all that was required within the initial benchmarks for opening the negotiating chapter.

Source: TV NOVA M