Montenegro needs a new model of state development and the entire system, not only political or economic, needs to be changed so that the country is no longer trapped, said former German Ambassador to Montenegro Gudrun Elizabeth Steinaker.
She told "Vijesti" that neoliberal capitalism brought catastrophic consequences and created a big gap between the rich and the poor in Montenegro and the countries of the region, which is still increasing.
"With a captured state, people are not aware of what it means in practice. The short-term solution is to strengthen civil society, and this can happen if EU members, together with the European Commission, support civil society much more," said Steinaker.
According to the World Bank, state capture is a phenomenon where laws are created so that state assets can be transferred to a certain group of decision makers under conditions that are unfavorable to the state. As a rule, state capture cannot be seen as an isolated case, but as a well-coordinated and systematic network connected to the political and economic elite. Transparency International recently said that the phenomenon of a captive state is a reality in the countries of the Western Balkans. "By a captive state, we mean a situation in which public policies are directed towards private actors, through corruption and gathering within the framework of the appropriate authorities and functions", said the program coordinator at TI Berlin, Mona Niemeyer at the MANS conference on small hydropower, which was held in Wednesday.
According to Steinaker, it is only true in theory that EU membership will help trapped countries, the practice is different.
"For example, little has been achieved in Bulgaria and Romania," said Steinaker, answering the question of whether EU membership would solve the problems of corruption in the Balkan countries. She added that the captive state can best be seen on the example of small hydroelectric plants whose owners are subsidized by citizens through accounts.
He believes that the EU Directive on renewable energy sources (OIE), which states that benefits can be given to those who own small hydropower plants, has good intentions in principle, but in practice it has led to a series of criminal businesses and damage to the environment.
"All this is in captured states, and you as an individual have no chance. It should be reconsidered, which only an organized civil society can do," said Steinaker.
She warned that in the captured states, the kleptocratic elites have also captured the civil society, so it is extremely complicated when it comes to financial support, but if the EU, that is, the EC, would like, they can distinguish between serious NGOs and those that are part of the kleptocratic system.
"I experienced that in Bulgaria, where after Bulgaria joined the EU, friends of the government or some politicians founded an NGO with EU money, and we can't do anything there, I heard that from the EC, because they are now part of the EU, they have their own control system. Imagine now in Romania, the ruling party, which has an absolute majority in the parliament, dismissed the only woman, the special prosecutor, who was the strongest in the fight against corruption, and this is happening in an EU member, so it would be naive to believe that joining the EU solves all these problems," said Štajnakar.
In the EU, she added, there are problems, such as corruption, even in Germany, but unlike the "captive states" of the Balkans, Germany has an independent judiciary.
While she was ambassador to Montenegro, Steinaker fought to protect the area of the Ulcinj salt pan. Due to her contribution to the protection of that area, she received an award from the prestigious German organization Euronatur in November last year, whose leaders told the authorities in Montenegro to stop the destruction as soon as possible. Salt flats, the largest bird habitat in Europe.In the case of Rudnik, the judicial system must react
Commenting on the case of the sale of shares of the Pljevlja Coal Mine to the state-owned Elektroprivreda, Štajnaker said that she had read about it and that it is now the responsibility of the state authorities, if there is something wrong in the legal sense.
"The legal system would have to react if there is any doubt that something was wrong. And the government would have to react because EPCG is still owned by the state, but probably nothing can be expected from the state, because they were ongoing, but civil society can react and the court system, if the system in the captured state is functioning". stated Steinaker.
The minority shareholder of EPCG - M&V Company, owned by Vasilij Miličković, sued for the annulment of the decision of the Assembly of Shareholders of EPCG on the takeover of the Mine, which was passed on March 26 of this year. In addition, EPCG took over 97 percent of Rudnik for EUR 31,37 million.
Individually, the Italian company A2A, the state and Aco Đukanović, the brother of the Montenegrin president, received the most money.
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