The President of the Party of European Progress (SEP) and former Prime Minister of Montenegro, Duško Marković, assessed in Zagreb that Montenegro has never been closer to the European Union (EU), but that there has never been a more un-European policy in the actions of a part of the government, and that he believes that in the run-up to the 2027 elections, the sovereign, civic and European political option will strengthen.
"When I speak on this topic (EU integration) in Montenegro, I say that the EU has taken us into its arms and is carrying us intensively towards its membership, and now it is only a matter of Montenegro not falling out of that arms. And very often we are on the verge of falling out, almost every day we are on the verge of falling out. We have never been closer to the EU, and we have never had more non-European policies in Montenegro, and this is from the majority that constitutes today's government, the majority that won the 2020 elections," Marković said at the regional conference Diplomatic and Political Issues in International Relations, organized in Zagreb by the Faculty of Political Science, according to the SEP statement.
Speaking at the conference as one of the panelists at the first panel discussion "Regional Diplomatic Relations - Challenges and Perspectives", Marković said that until 2020, good neighborly relations were one of the important features of Montenegrin state policy.
"Montenegro was stable during that period not only within its borders, Montenegro, with its foreign policy and relations with its neighbors, radiated stability and good relations in the region. That was one of the main characteristics of our policy, in addition to what were our internal values: harmonious ethnic and multi-confessional relations among different national and religious structures. Today, Montenegro does not have good relations with almost any country in its environment," said Marković.
Among the internal challenges, he mentioned that the Judicial and Prosecutorial Councils have not yet been filled, and that the judges of the Constitutional Court have not been elected.
"So I am really concerned about what we have inside as the national policy of the current government. But I believe that, in the run-up to the 2027 elections, both the civic, European, and sovereignist forces can be further strengthened and that in 2027 we can provide an answer to these internal challenges and make the European perspective unquestionable," concluded Marković.
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