Montenegro will get €270 million aid from the EU in the next seven years, and the EU partners, according to Jean-Eric Paquet from the Directorate General for Enlargement, expect that investments in legislation and institutions should be transferred into concrete results.
Chief Negotiator Aleksandar Andrija Pejovic, following the meeting with Paquet, said that good usage of European funds enabled Montenegro to receive €270,5 million aid for the next seven years.
“This is an indicator that Montenegro has well used the funds, but also that it will continue, as the negotiation process would go on, have more funds to direct them to the fields in which is necessary to make progress and prepare for the membership”, said he.
Asked to comment on the fact that dozens of millions of Euros have been invested into judiciary so far, and that there has been no verdicts in cases of high level corruption, Paquet said that it has no direct link to the EU funds.
“But it is true that there are expectations in Montenegro, but also from the partners form Brussels, that the efforts invested in legislation and institutions should be transformed in concrete results, having in mind the verdicts in the field of organized crime and corruption, and that, I expect, will be important topic during this year, too”, said he.
Paquet said that they were aware that Montenegro used the EU finds, but also allocated it own money in order to establish an efficient system of judiciary.
Pejovic remarked that in the previous period they used money from pre-accession.