Prime Minister of Montenegro, Duško Marković, said that countries of Western Balkans must do everything to keep the young people on their territories.
“We have to prevent brain drain from the region and we have to create conditions for those who went to come back. That means, we have to invest more in research and development. I am using this opportunity to remind you that Montenegro stands strongly behind the initiative for the formation of International Institute for Sustainable Technologies in the region of Southeastern Europe because we believe that this initiative can be precious for the region, for young people, creation of jobs…”, said Marković.
At the informal meeting of Prime Ministers of six Western Balkan states held in Durrës, Marković said that Montenegro welcomes the agreement between Macedonia and Greece, as well as the dialogue between Priština and Belgrade, but he thinks that economic themes should be in focus, and especially meeting the responsibilities assumed at the summits in Trieste and London.
“Many significant things happened this year. Important for the entire region of Western Balkans. New enlargement strategy of the European Commission is a major step forward for us. This strategy gives clear perspective to the region. But in order for this perspective to be certain, we have to do our best to get the benefits deriving from the Strategy and our national integration policies”, said Marković.
He also believes in the dialogue between Kosovo and Priština which can be beneficial for the entire region as well.
“However, today we are supposed to talk about what we have already agreed on and see what we had already done in that regard. We should also see if we have capacities to stay true to our commitments”, said Marković.
When it comes to the Enlargement strategy and Berlin process, Montenegro should focus on the issues comprised in the Strategy of the European Commission, which are complementary to Berlin process.
“We should focus on the formation of Guarantee Fund as proposed by the EU and to undertake activities to support beginners in business, for simpler financing of small and medium enterprises” ,said Marković.
Until the assumed responsibilities are met, the country will not take on new ones.
“This isn’t supposed to be a game of papers and documents”, said Marković.
European Commissioner for Enlargement policy, Johannes Hahn as well as the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Suma Chakrabarti attended the meeting.
