Dacic: Serbian laws will not be applied in Kosovo (Politika)

Asked by Politika’s journalist what exactly means the sentence that the judiciary had entered the Kosovo judicial system, Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic responded with a counter question: “Which Serbian laws have been applied in Kosovo until now? Serbian laws have not been applied even in places where Serbs are a majority.” “Serbian laws will not be applied. Serbia will not have its institutions in Kosovo, but there will be Serbian institutions that will function there. That has nothing to do with the status issue,” said Dacic, recalling that Kosovo and Metohija, according to UNSCR 1244 is practically not a special state, but it is a territory with special jurisdiction. He said that we will have the Union of Serb Municipalities that will be “the first legitimate and legally elected form of some organization of power of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija.” “The Serbs have key influence even now, only the question is for whom have the Serbs worked until now,” said Dacic.

 

Miscevic: Serbia’s great victory (RTS)

The head of the Serbian negotiating team with the EU Tanja Miscevic told the morning news of Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) that the date to launch the EU accession talks is a major triumph for Serbia and not a Pyrrhic victory. The date is a major triumph for Serbia and it entails additional credibility and fresh appreciation of Serbia as a future EU member, Miscevic said. According to Miscevic, the EU is a framework where ways should be found to ensure a normal life for all citizens in Kosovo and Metohija, especially the north, and not a place in which the status of province would be discussed. Asked whether Kosovo’s seat in the UN is being negotiated, Miscevic said that one international organization can hardly define the conditions for accession to another international organization. “The negotiating framework envisages the obligation of Belgrade and Pristina to refrain from hindering each other’s EU path and such obstacles were not posed so far,” Miscevic said. She noted that the immediate operative team for talks with the EU would be formed until the first inter-governmental conference on 21 January and it will comprise around ten people.

 

Brussels: No time for explaining the agreement between Serbia and Kosovo (Politika)

“It is still uncertain whether the first inter-governmental conference between the EU and Serbia will be held on 21 January, but Greece, which assumes on 1 January the six-month presidency of the EU, is doing the best for this date to be determined for launching the accession negotiations between Serbia and the EU,” Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Kurkulas told Politika. According to him, the beginning of negotiations with Serbia will also influence other countries in the region, while, as he put it, this is also good news for Kosovo. According to Natasha Wunsch, an expert with the German Council on Foreign Relations, it is unlikely that Germany will increase pressure again when it comes to this issue, especially if the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue continues. “Only a complete halt of progress in the dialogue in the following months can be reason for concern and lead to the fact that Germany adopts a stricter position again,” Wunsch tells Politika. She considers that after establishing the EU framework for negotiations with Serbia, the situation is not as brilliant as many have expected in Belgrade. Numerous officials of European institutions and EU member states polled by Politika in Brussels stated that “it is no time to debate this now” but that the most important thing is to congratulate Serbia for starting negotiations with the EU in January. “It is not time to focus on that. This is a positive station on a very long road. Serbia will have time to prove readiness to face all challenges in EU integration,” Kurkulas told Politika. Unlike the diplomats, Wunsch says that the formulation on the legally binding agreement means that Serbia is requested to recognize Kosovo at the end of the negotiating process. “According to my assessment, it is expected that Serbia will reach a point in the end in recognizing Kosovo’s statehood as the last step before joining the EU. While Serbian politicians are trying to think about alternative arrangements, it is hard to imagine that the EU states would accept anything less than full recognition, which seems to be the precondition for both Serbia’s and Kosovo’s membership, which is the long-term goal of the EU. At the moment when Serbia fulfills all other conditions for EU accession, the ‘carrot’ of direct membership will be sufficiently attractive to enable domestic politicians to explain recognition of Kosovo to their voters,” points out Wunsch, adding that many Serbian politicians had been underestimating the possibility of issues linked to Kosovo to be so present in the negotiating framework for Serbia’s accession to the EU. “Serbia’s negotiating position will now have to be adjusted in such a way to avoid lack of progress in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue that could halt the entire process of EU accession.”

 

Asp: Normalization, not recognition of Kosovo (Tanjug)

Swedish Ambassador to Serbia Christer Asp said that Serbia deserves to be a part of the European family and that the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina does not mean recognition of Kosovo, but good neighborly relations. “It took some time, but I think Serbia deserves to be a part of the EU family, because this government has made very brave and difficult decisions about the normalization of relations with Kosovo,” Asp told Tanjug. The normalization process has progressed rapidly over the past year, he remarked, adding that it was very important for the European Union to see that Serbian institutions cherish good relations with their neighbors. This does not mean that Serbia will be asked to recognize Kosovo, noted Asp. We will only insist on good neighborly relations. Commenting on the decision by the General Affairs Council to start accession talks with Serbia in January, the Swedish Ambassador said that it was a natural decision, which the Serbian government had already expected. He noted that this decision is also very important for the European Union, for Sweden, which supported the start of EU accession talks with Serbia, as well as for Serbia itself. We will now focus on negotiations, and I am certain that the Serbian team will conduct the talks very well, as they have done before, he said. The Serbian team showed they have excellent negotiation capacity, concluded the Swedish ambassador.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

OHR: Procedure of appointments in B&H Federal Constitutional Court must continue (Oslobodjenje)

At the meeting with the High Representative (HR) Valentin Inzko in Sarajevo, the President and vice presidents of the B&H Federation, Zivko Budimir, Mirsad Kebo and Svetozar Pudaric respectively, have agreed to undertake all necessary steps towards ensuring speedy appointment of judges in the Constitutional Court of the B&H Federation. The HR welcomed the determination of the President and two vice presidents to continue the work on this task without further delay so that names can be forwarded at the beginning of January to the House of Peoples of the B&H Federation for adoption. “Considering all present disputes in the Federation, it has never been more necessary to have functional institutions, especially the Constitutional Court,” said Inzko. The HR also called the President and vice presidents to continue with the practice established during the last nomination process, i.e. to examine candidates together so they could reach a harmonized proposal, the Office of the HR announced.

 

Macedonia is not on the agenda of the EU Council meeting (Utrinski Vesnik)

Macedonia will not be on the agenda of the EU Council meeting on 19-20 December, Utrinski Vesnik daily reported. The conclusion of the meeting of EU foreign ministers states that the EU member states will consider the issue in 2014. The EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule stated yesterday that despite the achieved progress the FYROM will not receive a data for EU talks due to lack of consensus.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Art Show on Kosovo Massacre Angers Hardline Serbs (BIRN, 18 December 2013)

An art installation dealing with Serbian war crimes in Podujevo, Kosovo, is going on show in Belgrade, in a bold move to open up a franker discussion about the Kosovo conflict.

Braving the wrath of Serbian nationalists, for whom Serbian war crimes remain a taboo topic, the Cultural Centre of Belgrade is putting on a exhibition about the murder of an Albanian family in Podujevo by a paramilitary formation known as the Scorpions in 1999.

Serbia's War Crimes Court established in 2009 that the paramilitaries opened fire on a group of 19 Albanians in the courtyard of the Gashi family house on March 28 1999, killing 14, including women and seven children, one aged two.

Five of Selatina and Safeta Bogujevci’s children survived, Saranda, who was 14 at the time, Fatos, Jehona, Lirije, and six-year-old Genc.

After four members of the Scorpions were arrested in 2007, Zeljko Djukic, Dragan Medic and Dragan Borojevic were jailed for 20 jailed and Miodrag Solaja for 15 years. In an earlier trial, Sasa Cvjetan, was jailed for 20 years.

"This exhibition has great importance," said Andrej Nosov, director of Heartefact Fund, which organized the exhibition along with the Cultural Centre of Belgrade KCB.

Curator James Walmsley brings surviving members of the Bogujevci/Saranda family, Jehona and Fatos, who are the creators of the art installation.

The exhibition includes the reconstructed living room of the Bogujevci family, the hospital room where the survivors recovered after the massacre, the court room where they testified about the event and the family tree of their murdered relatives.

The topic of the exhibition predictably angered right-wing nationalist groups, so that before it opened it was abruptly canceled and rescheduled several times for security issues involving threats to the director of KCB, Mia David.

Nosov says the exhibition must go ahead, come what may. “The art that raises questions and moves society forward has sense much more than any kind of entertainment.

"We have never questioned our relationship towards the conflict in Kosovo, which must be done in order to have better relations.”

 

Kosovo gives ultimatum to Bosnia on visas (World Bulletin, 18 December 2013)

Bosnia does not recognize Kosovar statehood and passports due to the former's Serbian entity, which advocates Serbia, from which Kosovo declared independence.

If Bosnia and Herzegovina does not abolish visas for Kosovar citizens until January 15, Kosovo will apply a visa regime for Bosnian citizens, Kosovo’s Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj threatened on Wednesday.

“In a future government meeting, I as minister of Foreign Affairs, will propose the application of a visa regime for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s citizens,” Hoxhaj wrote on Facebook, adding that Bosnian officials have been irresponsible toward Kosovo and it’s citizens since the latter's declaration of independence in 2008.

Noting the difficulty Kosovar citizens face in traveling to Bosnia, Hoxhaj warned, “if visas for Kosovo are not abolished by January 15th of 2014, as a reciprocity measure, Bosnian citizens will have to obtain visas at Kosovo’s border.”

Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 and has since been recognized by more than 100 states, including the US, UK, Germany, France and Turkey. Due to Bosnia and Herzegovina being composed of a three-member presidency, one of which is Serbian and advocates Serbia's interests, the country has not recognized Kosovo’s independence.

Since Kosovo is not recognized a state by Bosnia and Herzegovina, passports issued by the Kosovo government are not considered as valid documents during entry to Bosnia.
Bosnian Serb War Criminals’ Sentences Cut (BIRN, 19 December 2013)

The appeals court reduced the sentences of ex-fighters Mirko Pekez and Milorad Savic after their retrial for involvement in the killings of Bosniak villagers in 1992.

Justice Report

The Bosnian state court’s appeals chamber on Wednesday cut Pekez’s sentence to ten years and Savic’s to 15 years for assisting in the murders of 23 Bosniak civilians in the village of Tisovac, near Jajce, on September 10, 1992.

The men, both former Serb territorial defence fighters, were retried after their previous conviction was quashed because they had been wrongly sentenced under the 2003 Bosnian criminal code, which was brought in after they committed the crimes, instead of the potentially more lenient Yugoslav-era code.

“As far as aggravating circumstances are concerned, the chamber took into consideration the number of civilian victims, their age, as well as the fact that they included children and women,” said trial chamber chairman Dragomir Vukoje.

Their behaviour in jail and their family situations were taken into account as mitigating circumstances, he said.

The court found that the men were among an armed group that agreed to gather Bosniak civilians from the villages of Ljoljici and Cerkazovici, in the Jajce municipality, with the intention of taking them to Tisovac and killing them.

Pekez assisted in the round-up and then left, while Savic stayed until the end of the shooting.

According to the verdict, most of the armed group shot at the civilians, but it was not proved beyond reasonable doubt that Savic did.

Under the original verdict in 2009, Pekez was sentenced to 14 years and Savic to 21 years for crimes against the civilian population.

The verdict cannot be appealed.

 

EU Charged With 'Backsliding' on Macedonia (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 19 December 2013)

European Parliament Rapporteur on Macedonia says he is disappointed that the EU has again postponed discussion of accession talks with the country.

Richard Howitt said he had urged the Council of Foriegn Ministers meeting in Brussels to at least match last year’s call for a six-month interim report on the country.
“I am naturally disappointed that the Council has not done this, leaving itself open to an accusation of backsliding,” Howitt said.
The Rapporteur said 2014 must not become “another lost year” for the country in regards to its EU hopes.
The European Council conclusions on enlargement, published on Wednesday, endorsed the European Commission's assessment that Macedonia meets the EU's political criteria for enlargement.
However, the Council agreed only to “revert” to the issue of Macedonia next year at the next EU summit in June 2014.
The country will then again be judged on whether it had taken steps to solve the long-standing dispute with Greece over its name, and improve relations with Bulgaria.
Macedonia will also be judged on whether it had implemented an EU-brokered deal agreed on March 1 that defused a prolonged political crisis.
"What is needed is not praise but progress,” Howitt said, advising Macedonian leaders to work on meeting these demands now that Brussels had explicitly specified areas requiring progress.
“I urge everyone in the country to seek to meet this challenge, so that 2014 need not be another lost year for the country's European ambitions", he said.
This was the fifth year in a row that the European Council did not offer Macedonia a date for membership talks, despite annual recommendations by the European Commission for accession talks to start.
The failure is attributed to the Greek blockade related to the dispute over Macedonia’s name.
Greece, which has the power to veto EU decisions, insists that Macedonia’s name implies territorial claims to its own northern province, also called Macedonia.

 

Macedonia’s ethnic Albanians lose patience over EU accession talks (EurActiv, 19 December 2013)

Ethnic Albanian citizens in Macedonia are calling on foreign leaders to help the country sort out the name dispute with Greece and start accession negotiations with the EU, but the bloc is showing increased disappointment with the lack of progress in Skopje on democratic standards.

Background

Macedonia declared independence from the dissolving Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991.

The country is an ethnic mosaic. Slavic Macedonians represent the largest group (64% of the population). Ethnic Albanians are the biggest minority (25%), with Turks (3%) and Roma (1.9%) also present.

Integrating the ethnic Albanians has proved a cumbersome process, and the country has come close to civil war. The August 2001 Ohrid Framework Agreement, brokered by Western powers, halted the brinkmanship between the ethnic-Albanian communities (organised militarily in the National Liberation Army) and Macedonian forces.

Of all the hurdles standing in the way of Macedonia's EU accession, the so-called 'name dispute' with Greece appears to be the biggest (see EurActiv LinksDossieron 'EU-Macedonia relations').

Seen from Athens, the official name used by Skopje – Republic of Macedonia – is an open challenge to the Greek region of Macedonia. In reprisal, Greece pledged to veto Macedonia's participation in international organisations, including the EU, until the issue is resolved.

In an interview for EurActiv, the deputy prime minister of Macedonia, Fatmir Besimi, an ethnic Albanian and member of DUI, the government coalition partner of the ruling VMRO DPMNE party, has called on the international community, in particular the EU and NATO, to intervene in the 20-year-long dispute between Greece and Macedonia on the name issue (see background) and help the country out of the stalemate it is in.

“The current situation has become a challenge for our country; expectations have become different in different ethnic groups. A more intensive EU process holds the country united for a common future,” Besimi warned.

Simmering ethnic tensions flared recently, when the statue of a 14th century Serbian emperor, Tsar Dushan, who conquered Albanian regions, was erected in the capital on 3 December, causing shock among the ethnic Albanian community.

The statue was attacked and damaged during the night by ethnic Albanian activists, with video footage showing members of the ruling DUI participating in the action.

Even though the European Commission thinks that Skopje is ready to negotiate its membership, EU member states have repeatedly said that no progress would be allowed without a solution to the name problem.

Despite numerous initiatives to keep the country on the reform track, the situation has deteriorated. Freedom of expression levels are at a historic low, while nationalist rhetoric blossoms. The make-over of the capital dubbed “Skopje 2014” has also triggered clashes with neighbouring Greece due to the erection of a statue representing Alexander the Great, which has sparked interethnic tensions and questions about the financial transparency of the project.

“The Albanian community is dissatisfied with the lack of progress on EU integration,” the deputy PM said. “They feel that EU progress will increase job opportunities and advance their rights," at a time when unemployment remains very high.

“We will continue to talk to our neighbour, Greece, under the UN framework, but we need the international community to help this process, be it EU institutions, member states, NATO or the USA. I am not prejudging of a format but we’ve seen the EU successfully engage in bilateral disputes such as Serbia and Kosovo or Slovenia and Croatia,” the minister in charge of EU affairs explained.

Earlier this year, the leader of the DUI, Ali Ahmeti, embarked on an international tour to convince foreign leaders to “use their authority to reach a final solution on the name issue”.

The initiative, however, was unsuccessful, as the EU does not intend so far to meddle in a dispute which is led by the UN, based on a resolution by the UN Security Council.

 

Deteriorated democratic standards

But tensions have been running high between ethnic Macedonians too. Last year, opposition MPs and journalists were forcibly removed from the national parliament during the votes on the annual budget triggering a serious political crisis, which was resolved after the enlargement commissioner flew to Skopje three months later to help both parties sign a political agreement, known as the 1 March deal.

However, the event unveiled the “deep divisions among political parties affecting the functioning of parliament,” the Commission warned in its annual report on the country’s progress.

The political crisis, but also the attacks on journalists and media and the “blurred distinction between party and state”, all led EU foreign affairs ministers to draw on 17 December lukewarm conclusions on Macedonia this year.

“The EU considers Skopje has taken a step backwards," an EU diplomat said.

Unlike last year, when a pre-screening process was de facto announced, this time the ministers’ wording is much less ambitious when it comes to an opening of accession negotiations, with Finnish European Affairs Minister Alexander Stubb tweeting: “Disappointment on FYROM. Bad.”

Addressing the press on Tuesday in Brussels, after the Foreign Affairs meeting, the Greek deputy prime minister, Evangelos Venizelos, whose country will hold the EU’s rotating presidency from January 2014, made it clear that the lack of progress on EU integration for Macedonia was no longer only about Greece’s veto, but about the democratic standards in the country.

“The problem with FYROM is not a problem between two countries, nor does it affect solely the name issue. It is about a much deeper problem which has to do with the rule of law and the democratic standards. It’s also an international problem which is being solved in the UN, but it is also an EU problem because it affects the Copenhagen criteria that everybody must respect,” Venizelos said.

 

Positions

The European Parliament's rapporteur on Macedonia, MEP Richard Howitt, called the EU Foreign Affairs Council decision "another lost year".

"I had called at a minimum for repeat of last year's agreement to give further consideration within six months and am naturally disappointed that the Council has not done this, leaving itself open to an accusation of backsliding.

The Council praised the country's elimination of court backlogs and the continuing fight against corruption, but what is needed is not praise but progress.

However, EU countries have now made explicit areas where they call for progress and I urge everyone in the country to seek to meet this challenge, so 2014 need not be another lost year for the country's European ambitions."

 

Croatia War Veterans Deliver Anti-Cyrillic Petition (BIRN, by Josip Ivanovic, 16 December 2013)

Campaigners demanding a referendum to limit minority rights and effectively end the official use of Serbian Cyrillic script delivered a petition with 680,000 signatures to the Croatian parliament.

The Committee for the Defence of Croatian Vukovar, which is campaigning for a referendum aimed at ending the official use of Cyrillic in the wartime flashpoint town, gathered its supporters in front of parliament in Zagreb on Monday to publicly deliver its petition for a vote.

The campaigners marched from Zagreb’s main square to the legislature singing and chanting “God save Croatia!” and carrying banners with slogans such as “The people decide” and “If you had wanted to hear out the victims of the war, there would be no referendum”.

The Committee, which is led by Vukovar war veterans, is proposing that minority language rights should be granted only in places where at least half of population is from an ethnic minority, instead of a third, as under the current minority rights legislation.

More than a third of Vukovar residents are Serbs, which led the authorities to start installing controversial bilingual signs in Croatian Latin and Serbian Cyrillic on government buildings in the town in September – although many of them were immediately torn down by angry veterans who fought to defend the town that was besieged by Serb forces in 1991.

Croatian law states that if 10 per cent of registered voters sign such a petition calling for a referendum, they have the right to a vote. The Committee’s 680,000 signatures, if valid, already surpass that requirement.

President Ivo Josipovic opposes the initiative however, arguing that it is not in line with the constitution.

“Croatia must not go in the direction of decreasing minority rights,” he said.

But the president of the Committee, Josip Cosic, said that “even if the constitutional court says ‘no’, we won’t surrender. We will fight by any democratic means to reach our goal.”

Almost all parliamentary parties, except the Croatian Party of Rights and a faction of the main opposition Croatian Democratic Union party, also oppose the initiative.

The ruling majority in parliament is working on a proposal to forbid any constitutional changes that aim to curb minority or basic human rights.

Meanwhile MP Dragutin Lesar, the president of Croatian Labour Party, demanded an urgent review of the issue by the constitutional court.

In his open letter to the court, Lesar said that “the proposed constitutional change could threaten the principle of equal respect for different ethnicities” that is granted by the constitution and by Croatia’s accession contract with the EU.

After delivering the petition, supporters of the Committee went to the studios of state broadcaster HRT to commemorate the journalists “who gave their lives for the truth of the [1991-95] homeland war” and condemn the current management of the national television station which they said was “desecrating the sacred task” of objective reporting.

Now the petition has been submitted, the validity of the signatures will be checked and the call for a referendum will be legally evaluated.

 

Montenegro is a ‘problem-free’ EU candidate (EurActiv, 11 December 2013)

Unlike other countries such as Macedonia or Serbia which have problems with their neighbours, Montenegro has no “political issues” to solve and should be able safely to consider itself the next EU member, the country’s chief negotiator Andrija Pejović told EurActiv Germany in an exclusive interview.

Ambassador Aleksandar Andrija Pejović is chief negotiator for Montenegro’s EU accession and state secretary for European integration. He spoke to EurActiv.de's Ewald König.

One and a half years ago, Montenegro began accession talks. What progress have you made so far?

We have provisionally closed two chapters and now, and over the past few weeks, we were able to open the two most important chapters regarding the rule of law. We hope to open more chapters at the intergovernmental conference in December.

I would say that the first two years of experience in the accession process have been extremely positive. The European Commission has been, and continues to be a very helpful partner. In addition, we have been able to improve the cooperation with member states; negotiations should not only be conducted with the EU institutions in Brussels, but also with the capitals. That is why this is my third visit to Berlin. And starting in January, we will begin the first bilateral consultations with Austria.

Apart from this, we are using the accession process to establish first contacts with countries Montenegro has not regularly dealt with before such as Finland, Lithuania, or Ireland.

Which member states would you say are the closest?

Well, that's difficult to say.  With Germany, we have several levels of cooperation on many issues ranging from the rule of law to economic chapters. Slovakia is also very present and very interested. The Croat expertise is also a great assistance and obviously we have very good cooperation with Slovenians as well, as they are ex-compatriots. We are their greatest priority. As a small country, this support means a lot.

What are you able to learn from Croatia, who has recently joined the EU as its 28th member state?

We have been extensively using their expertise in many chapters, from taxation to food safety and agriculture. Our relationship with Croatia is an excellent example of how two countries use European integration to improve their bilateral ties. Through this, you see how much we are actually building up our common future. That is exactly what we are trying to do with the rest of the region now. We are currently trying to transmit the experiences we have accumulated over the past two years to the Serbs, to the Macedonians, to the Bosnians.

So Montenegro is taking on its own special role for the rest of the Western Balkan countries?

Yes. For example, I meet with the Serbian Chief Negotiator regularly. We have sent some of our experts to Serbia and have exchanged materials and documents. The same goes for the Bosnians and the Albanians. In this way, we hope to pursue a basis for better cooperation with all the countries in the western Balkans.

Montenegro is likely to be the next EU member state. When do you think Serbia and the other countries will be able to join?

It would be ungrateful for me to talk about them because, unlike Serbia, Croatia or Macedonia, we don't have a political issue. The technical process we are face with is much easier; you do your homework and you reach the goal. With political issues, you never know how much time is needed. In any case, we hope for equal progress in the entire region without large discrepancies among the countries.

You mentioned that your country must do its homework. How far has Montenegro progressed with regard to corruption, unemployment, youth unemployment, etc.?

Of course corruption is also addressed in chapters 23 and 24. We have planned many measures, most notably the creation of a new agency for anti-corruption. We are creating track-record tables to monitor how many corruption cases are there and are working with the prosecutors in the judiciary to monitor how these are dealt with.

On unemployment, Montenegro is a specific case. At 13.5%, it is relatively low. According to the latest figures this is close to the euro zone average. Montenegro imports a high amount of labour from Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, showing that we have a very flexible labour market.

On the issue of youth unemployment, obviously this is a key area of focus for the new government.  The question is, how to find and qualify young people for the jobs on the labour market and how to improve the education system. Basically, the primary concern of the new government is employing more people, creating jobs, and creating smart growth through better education system and better access to the labour market.

Europe has certain problems in the eurozone, problems with the relatively weak leadership at the top of the European Union and the possibility that one-third of the seats in a new European Parliament will be won by populist MEPs. Is the European Union still as attractive as it was for the Montenegrin people?

Yes. We have polls that show 75% are in support of joining the EU. So, if we had a referendum today, 75% would vote in favour. I think people feel overwhelmingly positive about not only the EU, but how the integration process transforms the country and pushes reforms. In our case, we have never had a problem with negative perceptions on the EU. But we should work to improve this feeling even more. Through the communication strategy, we would like to reach out to citizens and explain the benefits they would receive throughout the process.

Which countries, in your opinion, should join the EU after Montenegro's accession?

We would have liked Iceland to join because we have cooperated quite a lot in previous years. As far as the western Balkans, we naturally feel that the Balkans should be in. Turkey should also do its homework and carry out the necessary reforms so as to join the EU one day.

Do really believe Turkish accession can be accomplished?

Of course I cannot speak on behalf of the Turkish government, but in Montenegro we see how the integration process helps the country. In terms of a long-term plan, Turkey could be in the EU between 2020 and 2030.

Are you afraid of growing Euroscepticism in the EU? Has this made joining the EU more and more difficult? Even for Montenegro, as the next country...

Yes. In a way we are concerned because there is less than 25% support for enlargement in Germany and in France less than 40% are satisfied with the EU, according to the latest polls. Obviously we need to recon the idea of European and also show that enlargement is not a negative thing.

Actually, enlargement has created an enormous benefit for growth, improved trade and has opened up markets. In addition, it has greatly spread democratic principles and rule of law governance on the European continent, to an extent that we have never experienced before.

When you look at it from this viewpoint, you see that enlargement has only produced benefits. Somehow there is a lack of communication among the population, that they do not recognize this as a productive process.

So it has also been a question of the media?

Yes, but also the communication from the political elites. Especially in Germany and Austria, two countries who have actually experienced the impact of foreign labour coming in but who are also exporting to the markets of the new member states. Austria, for example, is one of the biggest foreign direct investors in Montenegro. So obviously, it is in the interest of their business for Montenegro join. They should understand why our accession will be good for them.