Red alert from Brussels for Montenegro: Enough with "paper reforms"!

The recent visit of a delegation from the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET) to Podgorica left the Montenegrin political public speechless and with no room for feigned maneuvers or empty populism.

The message from AFET President David McAllister was surgically precise: progress is not measured by the mere adoption of paper, but by the actual implementation of reformsWhile the government boasts about administratively "starching" its obligations, Brussels is sending Montenegro a sharp warning about numerous domestic and external malignant threats and influences that cause deep polarization of society, spread harmful narratives throughout society, and carry out malignant information and other hybrid operations. It is requested that the state and society urgently build mechanisms of resistance to these and other hybrid attacks.

Diagnosis: Montenegro has a government and a parliament, but it lacks efficiency and the necessary results!

The essence of the problem in Montenegro can be reduced to a devastating diagnosis: although government documents already contain a commitment to suppress foreign influence, in reality there is no activity, no command line, no institutional address, and no results.

There is a difference between the state and improvisation, and our current situation is, unfortunately, the latter.

The essence of the problem boils down to four bare points:

Responsibility: There is no single policy maker - it is not known who is in charge, by name and function, nor who is specifically responsible for what.

Institutions: There are no operational procedures - who analyzes, who reacts, who communicates and who informs the public.

System integrity: Foreign influence issues are not related to electoral integrity, online political advertising, money laundering, and cybersecurity.

The results: There are none.

MALIGNANT ACTORS AND CHANNELS OF INFLUENCE

McAllister was crystal clear: Serbia and the Russian Federation use media and religious channels to achieve their strategic goals. Particularly dangerous are narratives that portray Montenegro as “another Serbian state” and those that spread and legitimize such policies of Serbia and the Kremlin.

According to messages from the European Parliament, the main channels of malignant influence are:

1. Political circles, the state of Serbia, the media and academics from Serbia: an aggressive effort to bring Montenegro back under the political and cultural influence of Belgrade.

2. Religious institutions: Serbian Orthodox Church and Russian Orthodox Church. It was warned that the Serbian Orthodox Church often acts as an instrument of Serbian national policy, and not as a religious community in a secular state.

3. Media: non-transparent portals, but also media in Montenegro and abroad, which promote these narratives. It is especially important to further examine the role of RTCG, which is paid for by all citizens, to what extent it participates in the dissemination of these narratives, which must not become another training ground for clericalization and divisions in society.

WHAT THE STATE MUST DO IMMEDIATELY

The state must establish a single center of resilience and accountability for FIMI (foreign information manipulation and interference) and hybrid threats. Without excuses, the following steps are necessary:

National body and coordinator for FIMI. It is necessary to form a body with a mandate over Chapters 23 and 24. This includes coordination, standard-setting, crisis communication and direct cooperation with the EU.

Operational interdepartmental group. The work of the Ministry of European Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and Media, the police (cybercrime), the National Security Agency, the CIRT, the prosecutor's office, the Anti-Corruption Agency and the State Election Commission must be horizontally connected and coordinated. If the state does not see the money flows, it does not see foreign influence either. The state is watching - with its eyes wide shut!

Full transparency of the media space. A public and searchable Register of Beneficial Ownership and Financing of Media is needed. This includes owners, related parties, the volume and origin of capital and all flows of state money through advertising. The implementation of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) must be immediate, without delay and without alibi.

IMPLEMENTATION OF SECULARITY AND CONTROL OF FINANCES: THE END OF “ATM” POLICY FOR THE SOC

The state of Montenegro must guarantee freedom of religion, but also absolutely equal status for all religious communities, without the selective and preferential treatment that is currently in force. A secular society must not allow religious institutions to conduct continuous political campaigns under the guise of spirituality. All contracts, privileges and millions of transfers from the state budget, municipalities and public enterprises that it enjoys Serbian Orthodox Church must become public and transparent and explained in detail. Strong anti-corruption mechanisms are also necessary to protect the integrity of all transfers to all parties.

The public has an inalienable right to know: have municipalities and public enterprises become "ATMs" for Srpsku pravoslavnu crkvu, while cities like Budva or Podgorica are crying out for new hospitals, schools and kindergartens? A recent example of financing Serbian Orthodox Church in Budva with over a million euros, in conditions of a serious deficit of basic infrastructure, represents an alarm for the whole society.

Loyalty to the state as an imperative. It is urgently necessary to ensure that the money of Montenegrin citizens is not used to finance anti-state narratives, clericalization of society, and the expansion of foreign interests. All religious communities in Montenegro must be loyal to their state; otherwise, they cease to be spiritual institutions and become channels of destabilization and mechanisms of foreign interference.

In order to eliminate the possibility of opening up the role of "agents of foreign malign influence", it is necessary to insist on the following:

Autonomy or agency: Will the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro break the chain of malignant influence?

The issue of territorial organization and autonomy of religious communities is not only a church issue, but a first-class state and security issue. The Serbian Orthodox Church, like all other Orthodox communities, must have an organization organized exclusively within the borders of Montenegro, in accordance with its sovereignty. This was also the legacy of Archbishop Amfilohije, who bore the title “Archbishop of Cetinje”, and this is the standard practice of all Orthodox churches.

Therefore, the question is justified: where did that heritage disappear? Why was the title of archbishop abolished, who did it and for what purpose? At the same time, a dilemma arises about the role of the new, second Metropolitanate of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro: is its goal pastoral care or the political-identity reshaping of Montenegro through the duplication of church structures and hybrid influences from Belgrade?

THE ROAD TO CONSTANTINOPLE: THE MODEL OF FINLAND, ESTONIA OR UKRAINE

It is time to open a dialogue on the model of full church autonomy of the Orthodox Church in Montenegro. With clear and transparent support from Montenegro as a secular state, the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro should initiate talks with the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The models from Finland, Estonia, Ukraine and North Macedonia represent a path towards institutionally preventing malignant and anti-state influences that have been circulating through church channels for decades. The headquarters of the Orthodox religious community cannot be in a state whose political leadership, according to official reports from Brussels, is actively working to destabilize Montenegro.

Metropolitan Joanikije faces a historic and personal choice: will he be remembered as an instrument of someone else's politics or as the first metropolitan of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro to demand autonomy or autocephaly and break the chain of Belgrade's malignant influence?

If it goes down that path, the state must extend a hand of cooperation. If it refuses, that response will be the final confirmation of this organization's real intentions in Montenegro.

Legal framework. Serbian Orthodox Church must act strictly within the framework of law and secular order, without pretensions to political power or privileged status over others.

Any deviation from these principles directly threatens the constitutional order and the European future of the country, turning the religious sentiment of citizens into a weapon of hybrid war against their own state.

Online advertising and political integrity

Introduce mandatory labels for political advertising on networks and prohibit covert foreign funding of parties through NGOs or “third parties.” Financial investigations must also treat information operations and activities as part of a broader criminal pattern.

Connection with Chapters 23 and 24: The question of state functionality

The issue of combating foreign interference is not only political, but also crucial for our European path. Chapter 23 (Judiciary and fundamental rights) calls for media freedom and effective combating of disinformation. Chapter 24 (Justice, freedom and security) calls for results in the fight against cybercrime and money laundering.

FIMI (foreign manipulation of information) formally belongs to Chapter 23, but can only be suppressed if it is operationally linked to the security sector from Chapter 24. If these two levers are not connected, incidents remain “nobody's business”, and the state appears powerless.

DEFENSE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER AS AN IMPERATIVE

Montenegro is at a crossroads where it is no longer choosing between a slower and a faster path to the EU, but between the survival of the state and its complete institutional collapse. It must protect the independence and civic character of the country from the organized, aggressive influence coming from numerous political, financial, religious and media centers of power, both domestic and foreign.

This is not about daily politics - this is a fight for constitutional order.

If a country does not urgently establish a strong resilience system, it not only loses “EU points” in Chapters 23 and 24, but also loses control over its own institutions and, ultimately, over its own future.

History teaches us a harsh lesson: a state that does not defend its territory and does not control its own information and financial flows will soon receive "other people's protection."

Allowing Montenegro to be governed from centers that deny its existence would be a historic defeat that we cannot afford, especially not on the very threshold of membership in the European Union.

The time for improvisation is over; it is time for a state that acts.