New accession methodology is based on the lessons learned in the previous enlargement processes and it can represent additional incentive for the aspiring countries, it was said in the panel debate entitled “New methodology in the EU accession process: advantages and shortcomings”.
Main negotiator, Mr Aleksandar Drljević, said that the Government was still considering the proposed methodology.
“This is a very encouraging document for all of us. Therefore, I think it can be an incentive, but also a warning for us and a call for the intensification of the activities in specific areas”, Mr Drljević said.
According to him, the new methodology hasn’t brought anything new to Montenegro. It only highlights the things that had already been defined and sends a clear message: they want more intense negotiation process.
President of the Committee on the European Integration, Mr Slaven Radunović, pointed out that Montenegro would achieve its goal faster if everybody engaged in the process.
“Two main chapters weren’t developing according to the expected speed and that’s why the new methodology was introduced. I think it can help”, Mr Radunović said.
Mr Radunović believes the Government will accept the new methodology and says the problem is absence of will to complete chapters 23 and 24.
President of the Montenegrin Pan-European Union, Professor Gordana Đurović, points out that the new methodology is based on the lessons learned in the previous enlargement processes.
“If you compare the new methodology with Montenegro’s negotiation position, you can conclude that Montenegro has everything that’s contained in the negotiation position”, Ms Đurović said.
She explained that two thirds of the new methodology referred to the countries which were about to start the negotiation process.
CEO of the Center for Civic Education, Ms Daliborka Uljarević, thinks that the application of the new methodology is in Montenegro’s interest.
“Montenegro is set to join the EU, and when you are about to join some club, it’s not you who defines the rules, you just accept them or not. There are great people in the negotiation structure and they work a lot but it’s not visible enough because the order is destroyed in the key areas of the rule of law. The new methodology acknowledges that both problem and the solution are in the political will”, Ms Uljarević said.
She agrees that the new methodology isn’t revolutionary but brings higher level of discipline.
