Milatović: We must lobby for Montenegro's membership in the EU in every member state

In every member state, we must lobby for Montenegro's membership in the European Union (EU), Montenegrin President Jakov Milatović announced today.

As reported by the Mediabiro agency, answering journalist questions after the annual awards ceremony of the Chamber of Commerce, he pointed out that Montenegro is in the final phase of the EU accession process.

"This is the most complex and demanding phase in which, apart from the technical aspect of our process, our negotiations that the Government of Montenegro is conducting with the European Commission in the context of closing negotiation chapters, we have to lobby for our membership in each member state, because they are the ones who make the decision on new members. Each member state - 27 of them, in their parliaments, and some perhaps even in a referendum, needs to approve our membership. This is not an easy process and through an intensive diplomatic campaign I am working on it almost every day. We have opened the doors to numerous countries that were previously skeptical. I am a moderate optimist, but it is important that the Government completes the technical part of the negotiations at an absolutely faster pace than has been the case so far," Milatović said.

He also confirmed that there are currently discussions between the Office of the President and the Government of Montenegro about filling several ambassadorial positions, primarily those vacant in Berlin and London, and the one in the Mission to the EU, whose head's mandate has expired.

"I sincerely believe that we will soon come up with new names for ambassadors and that we will thus additionally fill a part of our ambassadorial network. My diplomatic advisor and chief of staff are working on this together with the team from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They talk about this topic almost once a week and I am moderately optimistic that we can complete it in the near future," Milatović said.

He pointed out the importance of strengthening Montenegro's diplomatic network.

"Yesterday I returned from Berlin, from an extremely successful working visit, I was a guest of their Bundestag, which will play a key role in the process of ratifying the Montenegrin accession treaty. There has been no Montenegrin ambassador in Germany for six years, and this sends a message of insufficient attention to that country, and it is an undiplomatic message. This is a complicated process because in a coalition government, an agreement needs to be reached between the constituents of the government itself, so that the name gets the 'green light' from both the president of the state and the host country. The president's office is giving its maximum here, and we have been absolutely constructive from day one," said Milatović.