PM Marković in Rome discusses with his counterpart Conte and Enlargement Commissioner Varhelyi: Further accelerating of Montenegro’s integration to EU is common goal

Rome, Italy (19 December 2019) -- Montenegro is a leader in the European integration, the common goal is to further accelerate Montenegro's integration process and give a strategic significance of the European Union enlargement to the Western Balkans, were the most important joint assessments of the meetings of Prime Minister Duško Marković, earlier today in Rome, with Prime Minister of the Republic of Italy Giuseppe Conte and European Neighbourhood and Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi, held during the Summit of the Central European Initiative.

Prime Minister Conte stressed that Italy continues to strongly support the European integration of Montenegro, while Commissioner Varhelyi stated his goal is to have our country ready for the EU membership by the end of the term.

Prime Minister Marković thanked the Italian Prime Minister for his support in the European integration and in the process of our accession to NATO.

"Italy has always been with us. As an ally, today we enjoy the benefits of success along that path," Prime Minister Marković noted. He added that the Italy assistance to the reform of the judiciary was also valuable for Montenegro, where cooperation on building a normative and institutional framework in the rule of law was successfully completed.

The Italian Prime Minister was completely clear about the enlargement policy in Montenegro, the Montenegrin Prime Minister stated after the meeting. "Montenegro has achieved the best results and Montenegro has the best opportunity to be able to intensify the negotiation process and gain momentum in the new approach, which will certainly be defined by the new European Commission, supported strongly of President Conte and the Italian Government. So the position of Italy, and also of the new European Commission, will be indisputable. The enlargement policy will be one of the key policies of the new European Commission below," Prime Minister Marković stressed after the meetings.

Prime Ministers Marković and Conte assessed bilateral political relations of Montenegro and the Republic as good quality and content, and economic cooperation as extraordinary, which confirms the recent commissioning of the submarine energy cable and the fact that more than 600 Italian companies, legal entities and individuals business in our country. The Prime Ministers of Montenegro and Italy agreed that areas of culture and defence are the room for further boost of cooperation.

The Prime Minister of Montenegro invited the Italian Prime Minister to visit Montenegro and in that regard, to contribute to the further strengthening of the relations between our two friendly countries.

At the meetings, Prime Minister Conte and Commissioner Varhelyi emphasized that they particularly value Montenegrin regional policy, which is characterised by good and quality relations with all countries in the region.

At the Summit, Montenegro took over a one-year chairmanship of the Central European Initiative, the largest and oldest regional cooperation mechanism bringing together 17 countries.

The Prime Minister said that the priorities of our chairmanship, starting on 1 January 2020, are in line with the priorities of the Italian chairmanship so far, which gave the full result: "Connectivity, scientific diplomacy, environmental protection, cultural cooperation and relation towards young people will be the priorities of our chairmanship," Prime Minister of Montenegro Duško Marković pointed out.

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