Coalition 27, a network of 20 non-governmental organizations dealing with the environment and climate change, believes that official Montenegro should understand that the opening of Chapter 27 is a concrete step by the European Union towards stricter requirements and the application of more serious mechanisms. "That's why we think it would be much more appropriate to inform the public about specific plans for the future period and to concentrate on closing the process, instead of the tasteless gloating of certain leaders, who have absolutely no merit for such a decision of the EU member states," the statement said. Croatia, as stated, opened and closed the negotiation chapter within ten months. "That would be disastrous for Montenegro, in a situation where the state institutions do not have the necessary administrative and financial capacity to optimally implement the values and legal acquis of the EU", assesses the Coalition of 27. As stated, a decade after the signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement, Montenegro managed to transpose a significant number of European regulations, while their implementation seriously lags behind, especially in the area of nature protection, waste management, water quality, air emissions. In ten years, Montenegro failed to respond to the priority task, defined later in the Accession Strategy, which refers to the significant strengthening of the capacity of the environmental inspection system in accordance with the Recommendation of the European Parliament and the Council on the minimum criteria for environmental inspection in the member states . "Montenegro failed to provide temporary protection of potential Natura 2000 areas in which, due to spontaneous and unplanned development, there was devastation of natural values, such as the devastation of the Tara River, Cijevna, NP Skadarsko jezero and Durmitor, marine areas through hydrocarbon exploration, while the protection of the Ulcinj Saltworks despite of all international and national communications has not yet been reached," the statement said. Coalition 27 assesses that Montenegro has not provided for the objectives of preserving the good ecological status of waters, according to the Water Framework Directive, considering the planned and realized significant degradation of numerous watercourses in the north of Montenegro, caused by the construction of hydropower facilities. "We are seriously concerned about the planning and management of finances, which is now estimated at 1,6 billion euros and whose amount is not reduced, but increased compared to the estimated 1,4 billion in the previous year, especially knowing that the state has so far invested 200 million euros," the statement said. It is stated that the state's critical unpreparedness is related to the area of waste management and the situation that two local governments have not established a waste management system in accordance with the law, while in the entire country there are only four city wastewater treatment plants with unacceptable dynamics of building new plants and sewage networks . "After several decades, institutions are struggling with 350 illegal landfills, city dumps, unknown quantities of deposited waste, waste according to factions and different waste streams," say the Coalition on 27. It is reminded that according to the latest report of the World Health Organization, Pljevlja is on the list of the most polluted cities in the world, despite all legal obligations and standards that limit the excessive emission of polluting particles. Coalition 27 claims that there is no long-term plan at the local or national level to solve the problem, and the measures taken so far have not produced any effects. "The thermal power plant continues to pollute the air in Pljevlje without paying compensation for the damage caused to human health and the environment". "Instead of the Government of Montenegro and the competent ministry seriously considering the problems and accumulated obligations in the implementation of regulations and inviting all interested social actors to the much-needed cooperation, they are conducting a campaign to discredit the non-governmental sector and conceal the real situation from the public," the statement says.
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