Observing from the sidelines, as a citizen of this country, the events in various spheres of the accession negotiations with the European Union, I cannot escape the impression that it is being done in a way that, in many examples, is not in favor of Montenegro. In other words, I get the impression that our government, current as well as those from an earlier period, is inferior in that process and that it does not highlight our specifics, although there are plenty of them. Of course, even though they are called negotiations, they are not the usual negotiations between two negotiating parties, but rather a complex process of harmonizing the legal framework of the candidate country with the acquis of the EU.
Our specifics derive predominantly from the size of Montenegro (close to 14 thousand km2) and the number of inhabitants (about 630 thousand). And when it joins the EU, and the current situation and geopolitical circumstances speak in favor of that, it will be one of the smallest member states both in terms of area and population. What do I mean by this? I think that in the negotiations, our officials do not highlight some of our peculiarities in the right way, do not emphasize them or insist on them. Namely, it is quite natural to expect that such a Montenegro cannot and should not fulfill all the preconditions that apply to Germany, France, Italy, Spain and other EU countries. Just a few examples. The conditions for railways and rail transport that apply in the EU cannot be directly copied to a country that has 250 km of railways (Bar-Brodarevo, Podgorica-Nikšić, Podgorica-Tuzi). The conditions concerning the power industry cannot be directly copied to Montenegro and Montenegro can be forced to turn a blind eye and shut down its only thermal power plant, which means the stability of its power system, but also its energy independence. Why should the conditions concerning large EU members in the field of mandatory oil reserves be directly applied to our country? Let me just touch on our education system. Why should we have so many different institutions, institutes, centers, agencies, councils, committees, etc. that it is difficult to list them: Institute for Education, Institute for Textbooks and Teaching Aids, Examination Center, Center for Vocational Education, Agency for Control and Quality Assurance of Higher Education, National Council for Education, Council for Higher Education, Council for Scientific Research, Ethics Committee etc.
Such examples of irrationality and overcrowding of institutions in every social sphere can be enumerated until tomorrow.
I appeal to those in charge to argue and consistently insist on what is the specificity of Montenegro during the negotiations and what is therefore in its favor.
Here, I will specifically focus on two issues that are very topical today.
I will return to the Thermal Power Plant in Pljevlja again. Undeniably, this is one dirty source of electricity. But the fact is that this source provides us with half of our electricity needs and that the citizens of Montenegro get that energy by extracting their raw materials and at a decent price. It is also a fact that it is the only dirty source of electricity in our country, unlike the surrounding countries where there are dozens of them, and there are also in the EU member states. Poland is a typical example because it is currently powered almost exclusively by coal-fired thermal power plants, but there are numerous other examples as well. It is also a fact, although it should not be particularly insisted on because energy independence is, nevertheless, in the first place, that in years with a good hydrological situation, Montenegro can earn significant funds by exporting electricity, currently practically our only export product, excluding tourism. Since the imminent closure of this power plant has been frequently bid lately, several questions arise: why invest in its ecological reconstruction, which should take tens of millions of euros from the budget? How to explain to the citizens that in the future Montenegro will have significant shortages of electricity, and that they will pay for imported electricity at significantly higher prices? What about the employees of the Thermal Power Plant and the Coal Mine? Why don't our authorities present all these arguments in the negotiations with the EU, reinforced by the additional argument that Montenegro is one of the European countries with a very high percentage of forest coverage, which are natural air purifiers - about 62%, just behind Finland and Sweden, and on a par with Slovenia. I am of the opinion that the only favorable outcome for Montenegro would be to obtain permission for this thermal power plant to remain online for the next quarter of a century, until 2050, i.e. until its natural shutdown, i.e. the expiration of its resources, and in the meantime new sources of electricity (wind power plants, solar power plants and hydroelectric power plants, therefore all clean sources) are being intensively built which, after the expiration of that time, will be able to, at least to a significant extent, replace its production.
Here, we should not ignore the fact that the Ministry of Energy has taken a similar position on several occasions in recent times and is asking for an exemption from the EU, in my opinion quite justified, responsible and with full reason.
I will also refer to the current situation in the railway sector. I think that all the current events are the result of the unnatural division of the former single state railway into four companies: Railway Transport of Montenegro, Railway Infrastructure of Montenegro, Maintenance of Railway Rolling Stock and Montekargo. Now we are going backwards, ie. in my opinion, it is back on the right track: it is proposed to merge the Maintenance of Railway Rolling Stock with the Railway Transport of Montenegro, because the bankruptcy of the first company would endanger railway traffic. If this had been thought about in time and that our specifics had been presented to the EU in time, i.e. only 250 km of railways, I am sure that there would not be any insistence on the separation of a single company, if there were any. If such a practice had been good, today Great Britain, which started everything in terms of deregulation and liberalization of the market since the time of Mrs. Thatcher, would not be carrying out the inverse process, that is, the nationalization of railway operators. The South Western Railway Company will be the first railway operator to be nationalized by the British Government under the Labor Party. The continuation of the process with the other operators in the next three years, which will all be under the Railways of Great Britain, which will integrate the entire railway of the country, is expected.
Be that as it may, I think that with all the irrationalities in the organization of state-owned enterprises and the incredible expansion of the state administration, we are rapidly heading towards ruin. I hope for historically proven, natural, cyclical processes: the time must come, sooner or later, and better sooner than later, when statesmen will appear who will implement painful cuts and reduce state administration to the right size, without taking into account whether will win power in the next term, and it is very likely that this is precisely why they will not. But he will do the right thing for the good of his people and his country, perhaps better said, for their survival.
The author is a professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Montenegro
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