Zoran Jelic needs no special introduction. A man called one employee (DPS member), four votes (for DPS). The son of the "Snimak" affair.
Instead of possible judicial and, in this particular case, certainly political responsibility - in a decent world, resignation is submitted if the misuse of public money for party purposes is mentioned - Jelić made progress. From the director and advisor at the Employment Agency, which was at the moment when the recording of the session of the DPS Council was made, through deputies, to a member of the Senate of the State Audit Institution (DRI).
Let's now use the example of the mentioned Zoran Jelic to do a rough calculation when we could finish the accession negotiations with the European Union after the new European Commission Report on Montenegro.
Anyone who has been even more serious about negotiations with the EU knows that it is difficult to get into EC reports, but also that it is difficult to get out of them. The commission follows the case to the end, noting it in its reports on candidates and potential candidates. Let's say, since 2014, in every report he mentions the "Snimak" affair and states that he has no judicial and political responsibility for it. And it will work until it is completed in an adequate, European way.
And it would be European for Zoran Jelić to resign because he used the money of all the citizens to plan, and perhaps hire, members of the DPS. That is the first, seemingly unrealistic solution.
The second is that Zoran Jelić be dismissed. This can happen if, as provided for in the Law on SAI, he/she performs the function negligently or unprofessionally or if the opposition comes to power, which is again politically sensitive considering that the senator's position is permanent. Therefore, that solution also seems unrealistic.
The third possibility is biological in nature. Let's wait for Zoran Jelić to turn 67, which is the requirement for him to retire by force of law. And that Brussels gives us a stamp for the work done. And that possibility is, as things stand now, the most realistic.
That's in seven years.
Let's leave Zoran Jelic aside. To give an explanation as to why negotiations on membership will certainly not be completed in the term of this government and, as things stand, hardly even in the term of the next government.
The fact is that Montenegro has not yet met the transitional criteria for chapters 23 and 24, although Prime Minister Duško Marković expected that we would receive them by the end of the previous year. Or, although in the middle of 2016, the then chief negotiator Aleksandar Andrija Pejović, presumably in preparation for the elections, said that Montenegro had fulfilled 80 percent of the total of 83 transitional criteria for these two key chapters.
The latest Report of the European Commission on Montenegro, except for its sharper tone and depth, does not differ much from the previous one. What is new is the inclusion of the "Koverat" affair, which is a question of trust in the electoral system, the second attack on Olivera Lakić, and political control over the Public Service and the actions of the Anti-Corruption Agency (ASK) in the cases of dismissal of members of the RTCG Council and the "Koverat" affair.
Part of the transitional benchmarks that had to be fulfilled relate to the fight against corruption, with a special focus on KAS, and media freedom, while the issue of trust in the electoral system will follow Montenegro as a shadow in the negotiation process.
With the return of the RTCG under the party mantle, in which the ASK played a significant role, which with its reluctant and weak reaction in the "Envelope" affair was even more under negative spotlights, during the previous year, Montenegro took several steps back in meeting the temporary standards.
We went back sometime to 2016, when progress began to be made in the independence of the RTCG and when the KSA was established. Maybe to the 80 percent that Pejović mentioned.
It is useless for the Government to count open and rarely closed chapters.
The speed of negotiations with the EU is precisely conditioned by the progress in two key chapters - 23 and 24. The initial and transitional benchmarks are mainly legislative activities and the establishment of institutions, in some cases the initial balance of results, while the final ones mean sustainable results. After seven years of negotiations, we didn't run even half the less demanding shares. And when we finish all the chapters at a snail's pace, the goal of membership in the EU is followed by ratification in parliaments or referendums in EU member states, which can take up to two years.
After the European Parliament elections, things changed so that the European forces will be strengthened by the greens and liberals, who are supporters of enlargement, and that the EC recommended opening negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia, even the Union's lack of interest in enlargement can no longer be an alibi. for the heads of the KAS, the prosecution, the judiciary, the Government, the state and others from the DPS.
And to paraphrase Zoran Jelic at the end - one year of captive institutions, four years away from the European Union. 2025, which the EU mentioned as a possible year for Montenegro's membership, already sounds desirable.
(European Pulse)
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