“We will cooperate with any democratically elected government, but that does not mean we support it. We will continue to have diplomatic relations, and the level of our cooperation will depend on common interests and values, which must be Euro-Atlantic”, says Great Britain’s ambassador to Montenegro, Karen Maddocks, during Gradska TV’s I Know You Know show. The most important priority of Montenegro, Maddocks points out, must be the establishment of an operational Constitutional Court, because Montenegro – as a NATO ally and a future EU member state – needs to show its partners that it is fully capable of functioning normally.
“I think the current situation is very worrying. We have several Montenegrin institutions that are not operational. There is a government in a technical mandate, headed by a prime minister who was voted out of confidence 6 months ago. Despite the government being in technical mandate, several important laws and decisions have been adopted. None of these decisions, made by the Government, can be contested before the Constitutional Court, because it is not operational. This means that some of the mechanisms of mutual control that allow a democratic government to function in the interests of its citizens are missing. All this makes Montenegro more susceptible to external influences from countries such as Russia, but also to the influence of organized crime”, she has pointed out.
She adds that the UK had a good cooperation with the governments of Montenegro, and stresses that “this is because we work with states, not governments. We do not choose the government, it is chosen by the citizens of Montenegro. We, on the other hand, have diplomatic relations and work with every government in power. That’s what diplomats do. So, it’s not about support. Just because we talk to a lot of people doesn’t mean we support them. It means that we are doing our job. In this way, we get information about what is happening at the local level and cooperate with them”.
When discussing presidential elections, Maddocks says that “the procedure dictates that elections be held before the end of the president’s term, so they must be held on time. Otherwise, it would be another example of deviation from constitutional norms. That is why it is important that these elections take place. But the holding of elections and the potential election of a new President in itself will not bring stability. There are more tasks that must be completed in order for this to happen”.
