Podgorica, (MINA) – More than €200 million has been invested in environment in Montenegro over the past ten years, Head of the Working Group on Chapter 27 Ivana Vojinovic has stated, adding that the state is ready to open EU negotiations with the EU in this area.
Vojinovic argues that Montenegro is prepared to start negotiating with the European Commission on what she describes as one of the most difficult chapters in the EU accession talks.
He recalls that in July 2016 the European Commission confirmed that Montenegro had met the only benchmark set for the opening of Chapter 27 and that in March last year the EU Council notified Montenegro that all 28 member states had concluded unanimously that Montenegro was ready to open negotiations, inviting the country to present the Negotiating Position.
“Based on the pace at which we are getting approvals from the Member States, as well as the intensive diplomatic communication that we are having on this issue, we have high expectations from the Austrian EU Presidency to have this chapter opened by the end of this year,” Vojinovic told Mina.
Although this chapter is still not officially opened, according to her, the authorities are implementing all the activities as if it were.
“We realize that implementing the EU legislation in the field of environment is not an easy, cheap or fast process, if we want to do it right. With the opening of this chapter we will only continue to pursue our priorities and gradually address the open issues in this area and we will try to negotiate the best possible terms for Montenegro in order to raise the environment standards, so that the new processes in this area can improve the quality of life of the people,” Vojinovic said.
He explained that in early February Montenegro presented its Negotiating Position, on the basis of which the European Commission prepared a draft common negotiating position, which is currently being considered by the 28 Member States.
This article was published with the financial support of the European Union available within the framework of the project “Dealing with Ethics and Fake News” IPA2018/397-252. The Mina agency assumes full responsibility for its contents, which do not necessarily reflect the position of the EU.
