Montenegro has around 7000 seafarers including staff on cruises and they all have been facing serious problems. As for the Seafarers Union of Montenegro, the state hasn’t fully identified their interests. They [seafarers] are not satisfied due to the fact that the National Maritime Strategy has been developing but with no some obvious, that is, evident outcomes.
The President of the Seafarers Union of Montenegro, Mr Neđeljko Radulović, in an interview with CdM claims that despite certain improvements that came as the result of numerous suggestions and initiatives, the Union has to note that the state still doesn’t fully recognize the interests of the Montenegrin seafarers. In terms of economy, he says, the fact is that the enormous impact of the seafarers on the Montenegrin industry has been recognized by only a few business entities.
Mr Radulović said: “Any serious individual connected with the maritime affairs clearly sees the importance of such document, which is supposed to prescribe guidelines for the continuous development of the Montenegrin maritime affairs regardless of the in-country changes in human resources and policy. Certain progress has been made when it comes to signing bilateral agreements on the recognition of maritime authorizations with other countries, but the overall dynamics is unsatisfactory.”
According to him, amendments to the Law on Maritime Navigation Safety are underway and they were invited by the relevant ministry to come and give their suggestions, but were not invited to be part of the working group dealing with the same topic.
