Europe Now programme receives positive feedback in the EU

Minister of Economic Development Jakov Milatović and Minister of Finance and Social Welfare Milojko Spajić met today with European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni. The Montenegrin delegation received a strong message of support for the development projects, which include, among other things, one of the key reforms in Montenegro, EUROPE NOW.

We started our visit to Brussels with the former Prime Minister of Italy and the current EU Commissioner for Economy, Mr. Paolo Gentiloni. He was very pleased with the achievements we presented to him, related to the economic recovery in Montenegro and structural reforms that we have managed to implement in the past 10 months. Also, the meeting was a good opportunity to discuss the very ambitious plans that this Government has for the next period. We presented the EUROPE NOW programme to him and we received strong support, Milatović said after the meeting.

Minister Spajić introduced the Commissioner to the EUROPE NOW programme, which aimes to ensure social justice dominance and a better standard of living for all Montenegrin citizens through a set of tax policies.

The EUROPE NOW project received support from Commissioner Gentiloni and we are glad that he even offered concrete things, such as technical support from its directorates. We are returning to Montenegro with some concrete things from Brussels, Spajić said after the meeting.

As he stated, they also received praise for their approach in achieving a political consensus on this issue.

Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni praised Montenegro's efforts to stabilize public finances. He said that it was a great challenge for the authorities in Montenegro to adequately respond to the decline in economic activity, which was the largest in Europe in 2020, and stressed the importance of support measures adopted by the Government of Montenegro to help businesses and citizens, which greatly influenced the recovery of the tourism industry. The Commissioner also expressed support for the Government of Montenegro on the path of European integration.

Ministers Milatović and Spajić will also meet with representatives of European institutions to discuss the plan for the future development of Montenegro, which aims to harmonize the potential of our country with the standard of living.