The article is written by prof. Gordana Đurović, Ph.D.
The new 2020 negotiation methodology was expected to speed up the integration process, both in Montenegro and in the region – but this has clearly not happened. The causes, of course, can be sought on both sides.
Unlike the region, the enlargement agenda is not high on the EU list. The priority is the fight against the pandemic and the economic crisis, the over-indebtedness of the Eurozone, the experience of joint borrowing and the consolidation of foreign and security policy. That is why the Commission proposes the introduction of the so-called political intergovernmental conferences, which would not open and close negotiating chapters, but would conduct a political dialogue on the rule of law and local economic and political crises. We will negotiate without negotiating chapters. Postponing the negotiations also postpones the problem of different approaches to enlargement policy between member states.
Although it has officially accepted the new negotiation methodology, Montenegro is showing a new trend in its attempts to change clearly defined negotiation rules, which can have a very negative impact on the partners’ trust and the pace of the negotiations themselves.
Today, through the preservation of Montenegro’s European path, we are not only fighting for economic recovery, dignity and integrity, but we are also fighting for peace in our country. Because with peace we can do everything, it is supremacy, the presupposition of the affirmation of all other values. And without peace and stability, “we have nothing” – these are the words of people from the ex-Yu area, who were embroiled in the tragic civil wars of the 1990s.
