Croatia supports the Euro-Atlantic path of Montenegro and will support the closing of every chapter in its negotiations with the European Union (EU) in which the required conditions are met.
This is what Vanda Babić Galić, a special adviser to the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia, told "Vijesta" yesterday, answering the questions - whether Zagreb will give the "green light" to close four chapters with Podgorica by the end of the year, that is, whether it will be against "knitting". some.
This should be known today, when a meeting of the EU Council body - COREPER II (Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States) is scheduled in Brussels, after which the Council will make a final decision.
Babić Galić, however, did not specify what conditions were "required" for closing the chapter and whether they were realized, and she did not answer whether Croatia is disputing chapter 31 (foreign, security and defense policy), whose "crossing out", according to unofficial information, " News", that country is considering hitchhiking.
There are no good neighborly relations in the chapter, but...
The paper's source from the government said that, according to their information, Montenegro will either close all four chapters, which Podgorica hopes to "complete" by 2025, or that Zagreb will block chapter 31.
That interlocutor assessed that, if the second scenario comes true, it will be a kind of message according to what Montenegro has been undertaking in relations with Croatia "in the last two, three months, two, three years or two, three decades".
He states that the reason for blocking Chapter 31 may be the damaged "good neighborly relations" with Zagreb, although, he says, that issue does not concern that chapter.
"The chapter is called - foreign, security and defense policy. We are 100 percent compliant with the EU, we follow restrictive measures, we passed a law that deals with it, we follow the EU in step... Not to mention NATO and foreign policy orientation. However, the fact is that in some segments of the negotiation process, we have an obligation to create the best possible good neighborly relations. This applies to all countries of the Western Balkans. It is part of the process, although not part of the chapter. And that's exactly why they (Croatia) think they have the right to block," explains the interlocutor of "Vijesti".
He believes that, after the Speaker of the Parliament Andrija Mandić (New Serbian Democracy) announced on Tuesday an advertisement for the election of two members of the Council of the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services, there is nothing left that can be "rationally expected and demanded" from Montenegro in order to close four chapters.
"Everything else is politics...", he stated, adding that the reason for the possible blocking of one chapter will not be only that half a year ago the Assembly passed a resolution on the genocide in Jasenovac, which Croatia strongly resented, but that it has been three decades "neglected relations" with that country.
On several occasions, after the adoption of the resolution on Jasenovac, the EU said that "good neighborly relations are an essential element of the process of joining" that community.
In the report for Montenegro presented this fall, the European Commission stated that Podgorica worsened relations with Zagreb, and that "tensions" arose from unresolved bilateral issues.
“There has been no progress regarding the unmarked border between the two countries or the ownership of the 'Jadran' ship. The adoption of a resolution in the Montenegrin parliament in June, which focuses on the historical events in Jasenovac, Mauthausen and Dachau, provoked a strong diplomatic reaction from Croatia, including the declaration of three high-ranking Montenegrin officials as persona non grata," the document reads, among other things.
The commission noted progress
The government said that it hopes that, in addition to chapter 31, Montenegro will also close chapters 7 (intellectual property rights), 10 (information society and media) and 20 (entrepreneurship and industrial policy).
If the closure of at least one of them receives the unanimous support of all EU members, an Intergovernmental Conference between Montenegro and the Union will be scheduled. According to unofficial information from "Vijesti", it should take place on Monday, when the chapters (or part of them) will be formally "crossed out".
Chapter 31, the closure of which Zagreb could lower the ramp, was opened in June 2014, and for its closure it was necessary to fulfill the only remaining criterion, which Montenegro implemented - harmonization with the decisions of the Council of the EU on the extradition of persons to the International Criminal Court. That benchmark was met when Podgorica terminated the bilateral agreement with the United States of America on the exemption of their citizens from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court at the end of September, which was welcomed by the European Commission. The United States did not sign the Rome Statute, which established the court, while the EU has supported the institution from the beginning.
The European Commission stated in the report for Montenegro that, regarding Chapter 31, Montenegro is "well prepared" and that it has XNUMX% harmonized its foreign policy with the common European foreign and security policy.
As stated in the document, Montenegro has made significant progress, because, among other things, it has maintained full compliance with the decisions of the EU Council on sanctions, including restrictive measures related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and provided assistance to Ukraine.
Podgorica has been negotiating with the EU since June 2012, and since then it has opened all chapters - 33 in total, and temporarily closed three.
Whether Croatia will block Montenegro - it is unclear, especially in the context of the day before yesterday's sudden decision by the executive power that Tivat's "Josip Marković" Cultural Center be ceded to Croatia. The decision came on the day when Zagreb's "Večernji list" announced that Croatia would not allow the closure of four chapters, and a week after "Vijesti" wrote that Zagreb had sent Montenegro a non-paper (informal diplomatic document) in which it made demands for resolving several issues that he considers open, including the issue of the Cultural Center.
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Unresolved issues
"Vijesti" announced last week, referring to information from the Government and diplomatic sources, that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received from Zagreb in November a document with ten points, in which, among other things, it was stated that it is necessary to resolve the issues of ownership of the school ship "Jadran", mutual demarcation, prosecution of war crimes, finding missing persons, as well as the issue of the name of the city swimming pool in Kotor.
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Zagreb's "Jutarnji list" subsequently announced that among the demands were the provision of compensation to "all those who were detained in camps in Montenegro during the Homeland War", as well as the protection and preservation of the identity of the Croatian minority.
According to "Vijesti" sources, Montenegro responded to each of Zagreb's requests individually, said it wanted to talk by offering consultations, and said it appreciated Croatia's support.
The "cooling" of relations with Zagreb began in the winter, after Croatian Defense Minister Ivan Anušić canceled, during his visit to Montenegro, a meeting with his Montenegrin colleague Dragan Krapović (Democrat) due to, as he explained, Krapović's views on the ship "Jadran" and the memorial plaque at the former Morinj camp in Kotor. Krapović previously stated that Croatia has no right to claim "Jadran" and that the plaque in Morinje should be replaced by another one, "with adequate text". The plaque, discovered two years ago, mentions "Greater Serbia's aggression against Croatia"...
An additional tightening of relations followed at the end of June, when the Montenegrin parliament adopted the Resolution on the genocide in Jasenovac and the Dachau and Mauthausen camps. That document was voted on the initiative of part of the ruling majority, after the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica at the end of May. This was done with the support of Montenegro, which was opposed by the parties of the former Democratic Front (DF), which therefore demanded that the Montenegrin Assembly be determined by a resolution on Jasenovac.
Croatia reacted violently to the adoption of that document, saying that it regretted that Montenegro decided to ignore the calls of their country "not to politicize the victims of Jasenovac". Zagreb then announced that Podgorica must meet the final benchmarks in order to close the negotiation chapter 23 (judiciary and fundamental rights), and that they will "jump in" with their benchmarks.
After that, in July, Zagreb declared the Speaker of the Parliament Mandić, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksa Bečić (Democrats) and MP Milan Knežević (Democratic People's Party) undesirable because of "systematic action to disrupt good neighborly relations with the Republic of Croatia and continuous abuse of the Republic of Croatia for internal political purposes ”, thus alluding to the decision to adopt the resolution in Jasenovac.
Something fulfilled, something is delayed
Several final benchmarks for closing Chapters 7, 10 and 20 were presented to Montenegro.
For chapter 7 (intellectual property rights), there are four such benchmarks. The first is that Montenegro "makes all the necessary legislative changes in order to ensure the application of the principle of the Union's exhaustion of rights on the territory of the entire EU on the day of accession", the second is the adoption of amendments to the Law on Copyright and Related Rights, and the third is the adoption of the new law on patents. Both of these acts were voted this year.
The fourth criterion refers to the provision of "sufficient administrative capacity for the registration and application of intellectual property rights and provision of the balance of the results of investigations by the customs service...".
When it comes to chapter 10 (information society and media), there are two criteria for its closure. The first is that Montenegro harmonizes legislation with the acquis of the EU in order to ensure the independence of the regulatory body for electronic communications (EKIP) and with the acquis on audiovisual media services.
The second criterion is for Montenegro to demonstrate that it has "sufficient administrative capacity to implement the acquis in the fields of electronic communications and audiovisual policy, including the independence of the regulator."
Montenegro, as part of the obligations from Chapter 10, was supposed to appoint new members of the Council of the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services, because the mandate of two of them expires this month, but the advertisement was published only a few days ago.
As for chapter 20 (entrepreneurship and industrial policy), one final criterion is defined within it, which refers to "the creation and implementation of a comprehensive industrial strategy, supported by the system of evaluation of indicators and benchmarks, as proposed in the EU industrial policy." .
The Government adopted the Industrial Policy 1-2024 at its session on August 2028 of this year. year, with the Action Plan for implementation for 2024, "as a comprehensive strategic document for further improvement and strengthening of the competitiveness of the industry".
"Additional importance of the adoption of the strategic document is at the same time from the aspect of fulfilling the prerequisites for the temporary closure of negotiation chapter 20", the executive power announced at the time.
Todorović Štiplija: The question is whether Croatia has the strength to significantly block Montenegro
If Croatia blocks the closing of one chapter, it will be a message that Zagreb can use EU mechanisms to solve bilateral issues, but that it will not completely block the process, as it did not do when IBAR (Report on the Assessment of the Fulfillment of Temporary Benchmarks) was on the agenda. - Nemanja Todorović Štiplija, editor of the European Western Balkans portal, told "Vijesta".
He says that the question is whether Croatia has the diplomatic strength to significantly block Montenegro, because, according to him, there is "a huge will in the rest of the EU to move forward with Montenegro".
"The fact that the Government of Montenegro suddenly made a decision the day before yesterday for the House of Culture in Donja Lastva can be interpreted as an attempt by the Government to prevent any move by Zagreb related to closing the chapter, but also a message that it wants to work on solving all the issues that a member state would , in this case Croatia, set up," assesses Todorović Štiplija.
The interlocutor states that the key factor still remains - the ability of Montenegro to meet the technical and legal conditions for closing the chapter.
"Regardless of Croatia's position, the EU insists on implementing reforms in the areas of the rule of law, the judiciary and the fight against corruption. If Montenegro shows clear progress and achieves an internal political consensus on European integration, the impact of bilateral relations may be limited. The EU increasingly emphasizes the need for regional cooperation among the countries of the Western Balkans. In this sense, any attempt by Croatia to obstruct the process of Montenegro could be criticized by other EU member states," states Todorović Štiplija.
Instead of live, Mandić and Metsola spoke by phone
On the eve of today's COREPER II session, head of parliament Mandić had a telephone conversation with the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, yesterday.
Mandić was supposed to meet with her in Brussels, but she canceled the meeting due to, as announced by Mandić's office, personal reasons.
It was announced from the parliament that Metsola announced that she would soon come to Montenegro and said that her support "for the efforts of the Assembly and the state is clear and unequivocal".
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