Although the Government is confident that we can close all chapters in negotiations with the European Union (EU) by the end of next year, Chapter 31 – Foreign and Security Policy is still under great question due to a number of open issues with Croatia.
The latest one raised by Zagreb is the issue of property confiscated from Croats in the Bay of Kotor, which, according to some estimates, is worth up to 500 million euros.
Part of this property was confiscated during the war years of the 1990s.
How much can this issue make it more difficult for us to reach an agreement with Croatia?
Mirjana Tripković-Pantar has been trying for two decades to reclaim huge plots of land in the Kotor settlements of Škaljari, Dobrota and Kavač, which, she claims, were illegally taken from her family during the war years of the 1990s.
"That is actually 500 thousand square meters of land that was illegally registered to third parties. Those third parties are people with a name and surname, unknown owners, various companies, municipalities, etc. and those illegal registrations were made in the cadastre," Tripković-Pantar told Television Vijesti.
And the Tripkovićs are not the only ones. Over 50 Croatian families in Boka Kotorska are persistently trying to reclaim what they are certain was illegally taken from them after World War II and during the 1990s through administrative proceedings before the Land Registry and the Commission for Restitution and Compensation.
"When we wanted to inspect those cadastral books, we were very rarely able to do so, because usually the officials were absent, on sick leave and who knows what. And most importantly, when we had access to those cadastral books, we noticed that many pages were missing from those books, that they had simply been torn out," said Tripković-Pantar.
"We have huge plots of land in Tivat - Montepranco, Tivat airport, Veliki Kavač, huge areas of land and several buildings, private houses in Dobrota, Prčanj, Tivat, that is, property of the Catholic Church. We are talking about an approximate value of around half a billion euros for now," said Zvonimir Deković, president of the Croatian National Council in Montenegro.
The issue of restitution is the latest in a series of open issues between Montenegro and Croatia, raised by official Zagreb. The government aims to close all chapters during the next year, and Ervin Ibrahimović's department believes that Croatia will ultimately not stand in the way.
"Communication between Montenegro and Croatia regarding open issues is ongoing, in the spirit of mutual respect and good neighborly relations. We are both making efforts to reach acceptable and sustainable results, to the satisfaction of both sides. In this context, progress has been achieved in certain segments and a dynamic has been agreed for resolving the remaining issues, which confirms the mutual willingness to conduct the process constructively," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Last year, Croatia blocked Montenegro from closing Chapter 31 - Foreign and Security Policy after the Montenegrin Parliament adopted a Resolution on the Jasenovac genocide. The two countries cannot even find common ground over the ownership of the training ship "Jadran".
Mirjana, however, does not lose hope that the bilateral talks will finally bear fruit.
"Either we get back our plots of land that were unjustly taken from us, or we get compensated, at least to some extent, so that something is resolved," said Tripković-Pantar.
And compensation could also be agreed for the Croatian detainees of the Morinj camp. There is mention of 17 million euros that Montenegro could pay them, but that part of the alleged agreement has not yet been formalized.
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