The average rating of the latest European Commission report for Montenegro is 3.21 and is a significant improvement compared to last year when it was 3.12, but not such a huge step forward compared to 2016 and 2020 when the average rating was 3.18.
This is what civic activist Dina Bajramspahić told Vijesta.
"It can be stated that only this year the 'European path' was returned to the central track from the changes of 2020 and that the state administration began to devote itself to what is the proclaimed state priority. In this sense, optimism should be supported and all social capacities should be harnessed to work towards a common goal, especially bearing in mind the almost impossible race against time ahead," said Bajramspahić.
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However, as she added, the progress is not as impressive as it is trying to be and there is certainly room for much greater work and results.
"This is proven by the fact that seven chapters have dropped by half a grade or a whole grade compared to last year, while as many as two-thirds of chapters, 22 out of 33, have a grade three, 'limited progress', which is far from desirable and must be improved." "Unfortunately, four chapters spoiled their grades compared to 2023," she stated.
These are, as she added, three chapters that received twos ("no progress"), lowering them from threes: chapter 6 "Commercial Law", chapter 8 "Competition", chapter 21 "Trans-European Networks". These three chapters are the only ones that have twos out of a total of 33 chapters, making them the worst in the entire report.
She notes that last year Montenegro had no doubles.
The fourth chapter that reduced its rating is chapter 14 "Transport Policy", which lowered its rating from four to a "weak" three.
"It is interesting that all four deteriorated chapters are from related areas and that an urgent intervention is obviously necessary in the entire field of the mentioned issues, which requires special monitoring by the Government and the Assembly," said Bajramspahić.
According to her, in the last year, the public visibility of the heads of working groups has not been improved, nor has the reporting of undertaken activities, met and unmet benchmarks, as well as responsibility for the results or their lack thereof, been intensified.
"If that had been the case, it might have been possible to react earlier and prevent the lowering of ratings in four chapters."
In order to understand the report, she added, it is important to emphasize that the reporting period ended with June of this year, which coincides with the period when the Report on the Assessment of the Fulfillment of Temporary Benchmarks for Chapters 23 and 24 (IBAR) was received.
"We are talking, therefore, about the months during which the ruling coalition dealt with obligations related to IBAR and refrained from its nationalist ideas, which were activated and intensified immediately after that, and today are already marking their culmination. In other words, there is no basis for cultivating misconceptions that the events of recent months will go unnoticed and this report should not be used for such manipulation,'' warned Bajramspahić.
According to her, the improved average grade is also based on a significant jump in two chapters. These are the chapters that are candidates for closure in December - 7 "Intellectual Property Law" and 10 "Information Society and Media", which raised their rating from three to even five.
"These are the only chapters that have a five (grade "significant progress"), which is very important for negotiations, it is a jump of two grades, which is very rare and increased the average," said Bajramspahić.
Chapter 20 "Industrial policies and entrepreneurship", the third candidate for closure, was upgraded from three to four.
With that, as she assessed, the ground for December was prepared and possible complications for the closure can only be based on the authorities' misdemeanors on other issues, not these four chapters that ended with good grades.
According to her, the fact that the highest number of chapters, 13, kept exactly the same rating as last year shows that the previous year could have been better.
In addition, seven chapters took half a step forward (from weaker to stronger three), and three chapters took half a step back (from stronger to weaker three).
"Compared to last year, grades improved in only six out of 33 chapters. These are chapters 23 and 24, which is completely expected because the grades from the IBAR report were retained, which had to be better than last year. However, regardless of receiving IBAR and better grades, this report emphasizes that last year's recommendations for these two chapters were only partially fulfilled, so they were repeated in this one, which means that the institutions still have the same unfinished obligations,'' said Bajramspahić.
According to him, the grades have been improved in chapters 7, 10 and 20, which Montenegro hopes to close; as well as in chapter 11 "Agriculture and rural development", which improved the rating from three to four, which is positive.
"Out of a total of six foursomes, four have already been mentioned (23, 24, 20, 11), and two have been 'confirmed' from the previous year, i.e. kept at the same level. They are chapter 25 'Science and research' which we temporarily closed and chapter 31 'Foreign, security and defense policy', the fourth candidate for closure. Despite the announcement that the chapter will be temporarily closed, the state is expected to maintain the course of foreign and security policy alignment with the EU in the coming period, improve the implementation of restrictive measures and reduce the space for foreign influence, manipulation, misinformation and hybrid threats,'' she said. Bajramspahić.
She said that it is a shame that chapter 5 "Public Procurement" and chapter 4 "Freedom of Capital Movement", which, according to the road map for closure, are candidates for closure in the first half of next year, did not, according to this report, make significant progress compared to last year. year and have the same grade - three.
"Montenegro has, without a doubt, entered the most demanding phase of the accession negotiations, and in the Report it is underlined in several places that it is of crucial importance for the state to focus on implementation, i.e. establishing a balance of results in the implementation of reforms and achieving results in practice, as opposed to the current phase of adopting acts, which has been sufficient so far,'' said Bajramspahić.
He reminds that this is the last report submitted by the commissioner (Oliver Varhelji), who will no longer perform that function, so the encouragement from the report can be interpreted as a "farewell incentive", which is certainly useful and welcome for Montenegro. "However, it must not be taken as a misconception that the final phase of negotiations will not be rigorous. The rule of law will be under stricter supervision of those EU member states that are not the most ardent supporters of the enlargement policy,'' said Bajramspahić.
As he says, it is absolutely certain that with the progress of Montenegro, the situation is significantly complicated both domestically and regionally. Competition between neighbors is growing and other countries are showing ambition to take advantage of the geostrategic moment and the wave of new optimism.
"In order for Montenegro to succeed in taking advantage of this chance, the management of reforms must be fundamentally improved, while spending social energy on conflicts must be stopped," she said.
He reminds that there is a little more than a month left until the possible Intergovernmental Conference at which four chapters could be closed, which means that the state must improve the overall image and impression of the general state of society, so that no member state expresses the view that such an acceleration of negotiations with Montenegro is not justified and grounded in the factual situation on the "ground".
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