For half a year, the Parliament has been refusing to include in the procedure the proposal for a decision on sending members of the Montenegrin Army to the European Union Support Mission to Ukraine (EUMAM), thus avoiding the European obligations it assumed as a candidate for membership, the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) announced.
Jovana Đurišić, editor of research and digital projects at CDT, said that this is another indicator that Montenegro is calculating with its European obligations, but also with the key values of the European Union (EU) countries.
As she said, it is clear that Montenegro is thus demonstrating that it does not want to stand in the same column as countries whose values it allegedly shares and whose alliance it wants to join.
"To the EU countries that have the courage to say clearly and loudly that aggression has been committed against Ukraine and to take concrete steps to provide this country with political and material support," Đurišić said in a statement.
She recalled that the EUMAM mission was established by the European Council in 2022 after Russia's military aggression against Ukraine with the aim of providing assistance to that country.
As Đurišić pointed out, in September 2023, Montenegro submitted an official request to participate in the EU mission related to military assistance and training of Ukrainian soldiers.
"Exactly a year later, the Defense and Security Council officially submitted a proposal to the Parliament on the participation of Montenegrin soldiers in this mission. However, the legislative branch led by Andrija Mandić has not yet put the proposal into parliamentary procedure, let alone considered or voted on it," Đurišić pointed out.
She said that the Assembly is not responding to the CDT's inquiry as to why they have not done so far and when it might happen.
"However, the six-month delay clearly shows that Montenegro does not have the political vision or strength to pursue a policy aligned with the EU and its members, or that it has no way to implement even the activities for which it itself applied," Đurišić assessed.
She recalled that at the last Intergovernmental Conference with the EU in December, Montenegro failed to close Chapter 31, which relates to foreign, security and defense policy, which was the government's plan for the previous year.
"If this "efficient and dedicated" fulfillment of obligations under this chapter continues, if political bargaining and calculations with principles and values continue to be a hallmark of our European integration process, this chapter could become an unattainable dream of the current state nomenclature," said Đurišić.
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