Montenegro is a leader of the accession negotiations, creation of legislative framework in priority fields is nearing end, but the results cannot be expected overnight, said Jean Eric Paque from the EU Directorate General for Enlargement.
He told the press conference that during his visit to Montenegro he met with many officials, but also representatives of the civil sector, in order to get introduced with the situation in the country.
Priority fields in the negotiations, as he said, were the rule of law, economy condition, reform of public sector, but also regional connectedness.
Asked by the press which the mechanisms that the EU could possibly undertake if Montenegro would not achieve visible results in the cases of organized crime and corruption were, he said that a lot was achieved in establishing legislative framework, but that the results cannot be expected overnight.
Paque said that the European Commission and the EU were systematically engaged regarding these areas, and “we first work on legislative framework and that was the main topic in the previous years in the negotiations with Montenegro”.
According to him, a lot was done in Montenegro and it was expected that all legal acts in that field would be adopted soon.
He remarked that Montenegro achieved progress since opening of the EU negotiations. “I am excited to work with Montenegro; your country is the leader in negotiations”.
Opening of the negotiation chapters, as he said, was one of the indicators of progress, but not the only one.
“I think that it is equally important to ensure the reforms that are the foundation for opening of negotiation chapters really give visible results in the field and in the practice, in the field of rule of law in particular”, said Paque.
During the press conference, Paque reiterated the importance of the Framework Agreement that was signed and that would enable significant EU funds to be available to Montenegro in the amount of €270 million by 2020.