Professor Anđelko Lojpur, Professor at the University of Montenegro and negotiator for Chapters 10, 25 and 26, says that Progress Report on Montenegro “doesn’t shed much light” on the purpose, i.e. the essence of the negotiation Montenegro-EU flow .
He says that all reports delivered by prestigious international institutions which deal with the quality of specific national economies and which made optimistic assessments of Montenegro must have been taken into consideration, particularly when it comes to the economic aspect.
“From the mathematician point of view, no objections to the Report can be made. It’s a reflection of what heads of some working groups had achieved during the reporting period. What’s very important, however, and what hasn’t been treated properly in my opinion is that the Report fails to shed light on the purpose, or the essence of the whole negotiation flow. It’s the economic dimension of the process. In other words, this Report should answer one key question – are there any steps forward in the economic context? Is the living standard of citizens getting better, since that’s exactly what both negotiating parties are focused on”, says Mr Lojpur.
“Satisfactory level of readiness”, “certain progress”, “moderately ready” are qualifications prescribed by the valid methodology. But, do these qualifications reflect specificity of Montenegrin social and economic system which is being transformed into a sustainable system?
“Therefore, while hoping that the Report gets closer to reality, I’m stating a qualifier referring to Chapter 25 – investment in research and development amounted 0,32% of GDP in 2018. Still below the projected 0,6%. Mathematically, this is a fact. But it’s important to notice that we are talking about budget funds only, whereas business sector has completely been neglected”, explains Professor.
He pointed out that there was a problem with the domestic statistics and financial reporting. Some very important items related to the funds for different kinds of education, training, scholarships, consulting , magazines etc. Are omitted.
Professor Lojpur agrees with what Mr Zoran Pažin said – if we had prepared the Report, it would be much different.
“Unfortunately, it’s impossible that we influence the contents of the Report. As I said, reports delivered by many international institutions should have been taken into consideration”, says Professor Lojpur.
