E l e c t r on i c mon th l y maga z i n e f o r Eu r op ean i n t e g r a t i on - No . 3 6 , S ep t embe r 2 0 0 8

European pulse

IINNTTEERRVVIIEEWWSecretary of

the Secretariatfor europeanintegrations

Ana Vukadinovi}

AANNAALLYYSSEESSWhy is

Montenegrothe bright

example inthe region?

EEUU CCHHAALLLLEENNGGEESSModern

slavery in"old Europe"

FFFFOOOOCCCCUUUUSSSS OOOOFFFF TTTTHHHHIIIISSSS IIIISSSSSSSSUUUUEEEEWhy do civil sector andthe opposition partiesview Montenegro'sprogress differently fromits Government and EC

2Eur op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 F o r eword / Ca l enda r

NNOOVVEEMMBBEERRFor a third year in a row, from June till the

first days of October, we are witnessing acheap soap opera starring Montenegrin insti-tutions under the benevolent eyes of Brusselswhich, probably for strategic reasons, followsthe farce like an uninformed neighbour.

In the last few months, we have seenthe police find kilograms of heroin and arrestpowerful businessmen who dared to ruin theenvironment, inspections dive onto the ille-gally built objects on Ada Bojana, and thecases of Morinj and persecution of Bosniansand Muslims return to courts after almosttwo decades...

Moreover, the Government is trying topersuade us that the judiciary has been"completely reformed", and points to the"obvious success" in combating money laun-dering.

If you are a devout consumer of newspouring in from the so called public serviceRTCG you can hardly believe it fair thatFinland and not us is still the synonym ofprosperity.

The million dollar question is the fol-lowing: is the Montenegrin governmentdoing all this to get a highly positiveProgress Report for 2008 (we have a pend-ing promise of membership application, andthe parliamentary elections are approach-ing), or are we witnessing the first steps ofthe rule of law?

Let's make it simpler. Do you believethat the construction and tourist inspectionwill demolish all illegally built holiday housesof party officials and prime ministers' friendstycoons by 5 November when the EuropeanCommission publishes its Report, or will theystill hunt mosquitoes at the mouth of Bojanariver next summer? Do you believe that thecourts will call the high commanding ranks toaccount for the cases of Morinj and deporta-tion of Muslims and Bosniaks? Will the con-struction site in Lipci be removed or will wesee a replay of Zavala (perhaps SvetozarMarovi} would be interrogated if the con-struction began a few months later)?

Should they by any chance decide that"year" only lasts from June to early October, or,which is easier, should the EuropeanCommission decide to write quarterly insteadof annual Progress Reports, we would quicklyfind ourselves living in a virtual reality. V.@.

MMaauurreerr pprraaiisseess MMoonntteenneeggrroo ((99SSeepptteemmbbeerr)) - Montenegro is ahead ofits neighbours in the integrationprocess, said the head of theDelegation of European Commissionto Montenegro LLeeooppoolldd MMaauurreerr. Hesaid that Montenegro has madeprogress in fighting corruption andorganised crime, but added that it istoo early to say whether the 2008Progress Report will be positive.

RReehhnn ssaattiissffiieedd wwiitthh iimmpplleemmeennttaattiioonn ooff SSAAAA ((1122 SSeepptteemmbbeerr)) - EuropeanEnlargement Commissionaire OOllllii RReehhnn said that he finds Montenegro'sresults in implementing the Stabilisation and Association Agreement sat-isfactory. "The important issue that remains is more effort in the fightagainst corruption, which is the case with all West Balkan countries", hesaid.

EECC DDeelleeggaattiioonn rreeppllaacceess EEAARR ((1122 SSeepptteemmbbeerr)) - EC Delegation in Podgoricatook over the responsibility for managing projects under the CARDS pro-gramme from European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR). EAR's mandateexpires in December this year. EAR was formed in December 2000 inorder to implement CARDS programmes worth up to 1.6 billion eurosthrough its operating centres in Podgorica, Skopje, Belgrade and Prishtina.From 2001 to 2006 Montenegro drew more than 100 million worth offunds through EAR.

SSeerrbbiiaa ssttiillll aawwaaiittiinngg IInntteerriimm AAggrreeeemmeenntt ((1155 SSeepptteemmbbeerr)) - Council of EUministers did not decide to unfreeze the Interim Trade Agreement withSerbia after the Netherlands opposed this move, demanding Belgrade's fullcooperation with ICTY, which includes arrest of RRaattkkoo MMllaaddii}}. Olli Rehnencouraged the government in Serbia to begin unilateral implementationof SAA in order to pave the way for acquiring candidate country status in2009.

TTaarrddiinneessss ooff ccoouurrttss ccaann bbee aa pprroobblleemm ((1177 SSeepptteemmbbeerr)) - Tardiness ofMontenegrin courts in 2007 can be an obstacles for this country's progresstowards EU, said President of the Supreme Court VVeessnnaa MMeeddeenniiccaa.

CCoonnssttiittuuttiivvee sseessssiioonn ooff NNCCEEII ((1188 SSeepptteemmbbeerr)) - President of the NationalCouncil for European Integrations (NCEI) SSrr||aann MMiillii}} said that this advi-sory body shouldn't be seen as "another political arena". It was decidedthat the prime minister MMiilloo \\uukkaannoovvii}} and his deputy GGoorrddaannaa \\uurroovvii}}should be invited to the next session of NCEI.

AAggrreeeemmeenntt oonn ccooooppeerraattiioonn wwiitthh EEUURROOPPOOLL ((1199 SSeepptteemmbbeerr)) - Minister ofHome Affairs of Montenegro JJuussuuff KKaallaammppeerroovvii}} and director of EUROPOLMMaaxx-PPeetteerr RRaattzzeell signed an agreement on strategic cooperation betweenMontenegro and the European Police Office. Ratzel said that the agree-ment offers "a series of advantages" to both sides, allowing them toexchange strategic information, best practices, expertise, knowledge andexperience.

Leopold Maurer

3Eu r op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 A t t i t ud e

Western Balkans countries have aperspective to join the European

Union once they fulfil all necessary cri-teria. The Irish "no" to the Lisbon Treatyhas raised some questions on the futureof enlargement. Will it affect theprocess? It should not be allowed to.Enlargement did not play a role in thedebate in Ireland. It should not be usedas a scapegoat for the result, either.

We need the Lisbon Treaty in orderto make the current EU function better.But we cannot take any sabbatical fromour work for peace and prosperity thatserves the fundamental interest of theEU and its citizens.

The June European Council reaf-firmed the EU accession perspective ofthe Western Balkans. Since then, wehave opened negotiation chapters withboth Turkey and Croatia. The EU has

signed Stabilisation and Associationagreements with Bosnia andHerzegovina and with Serbia. Theenlargement process is on track - not abullet train, but on track.

In the Balkans, countries thatrecently were at war are now busy set-ting up regional cooperation, an energycommunity, a transport community anda free trade area. They are all preparingfor EU membership. Yet, much remainsto be done on such key issues as thefight against corruption or the reform ofpublic administration and judiciary.

The Commission will present the2008 enlargement package, includingprogress reports, in early November. Thiswill provide the December EuropeanCouncil with proposals for managing theway ahead. The accession negotiationswith Croatia are proceeding well. Iexpect most of the remaining chapters tobe opened this autumn, although thetrickiest ones may be left for the CzechPresidency. It should be possible to closea large number of chapters during thespring, so as to conclude the technical

negotiations before the end of next year. In the progress report on the

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,we will assess the fulfilment of the key

priorities of the Accession Partnership,especially the judiciary and administra-tive reforms and electoral standards. Anyrecommendation concerning the acces-sion negotiations will depend on thecountry's performance. In Serbia, thenew Government has made EU integra-tion its key priority and set itself an

ambitious reform agenda. The arrest ofRadovan Karad`i} showed that the

Serbian government is determinedto cooperate fully with the InternationalCriminal Tribunal in the Hague. AsPresident Barroso said earlier this month,Serbia could achieve candidate statusnext year. This possibility is further rein-forced by the fact that the Parliament ofSerbia ratified the Stabilisation andAssociation Agreement (SAA) last week.The Radicals, who have traditionallyopposed EU membership, abstainedfrom voting, which may signal better

national consensus on Serbia's Europeanobjectives.

Albania, Montenegro and Bosniaand Herzegovina face the challenge ofimplementing their SAAs, includingtrade-related provisions. Dialogue onvisa liberalisation for the Western Balkancountries will reach a crucial state dur-ing the Czech Presidency. CommissionVice-President Jacques Barrot recentlyconfirmed that the countries mostadvanced in fulfilling the criteria mightobtain visa-free travel already before theend of 2009. The Commission will pres-ent its assessment of this before the endof this year, but for 2009 to be realistic,discussions among the EU MemberStates should take a great leap forwardunder Czech Presidency.

Kosovo will remain a focal pointthroughout this period. A successfuldeployment of our ESDP mission EULEXKosovo is essential. The EU is commit-ted to help secure peace and stability inKosovo and support its economic devel-opment, as well as its progress towardsthe EU as part of the Western Balkans.Kosovo on its part needs to ensure itscommitment to a democratic and multi-ethnic society.

The political attention in the EU hasrecently focused on Southern Caucasus,which is only natural and necessary.

However, we cannot forget our friendsin the Western Balkans and Turkey. Insum, 2009 is bound to be the year ofthe Western Balkans and of the EasternEurope Partnership. That will certainlysuit Czech priorities and the motto youhave chosen for your presidency:"Europe without Barriers".

Excerpt from the speech of the EUCommissioner for Enlargement at theCzech Ministry of Foreign Affairs confer-ence "EU and Western Balkans", Prague,18 September 2008

A V I E W F R O M E U R O P E

Uif!Zfbs!pg!Xftufso!Cbmlbot

Olli Rehn

TThhee eennllaarrggeemmeenntt pprroocceessss iiss bbaacckk oonn ttrraacckk - nnoott aa bbuulllleett ttrraaiinn,, bbuuttoonn ttrraacckk

CCoommmmiissssiioonn VViiccee-PPrreessiiddeenntt JJaaccqquueess BBaarrrroott rreecceennttllyy ccoonnffiirrmmeedd tthhaatttthhee ccoouunnttrriieess mmoosstt aaddvvaanncceedd iinn ffuullffiilllliinngg tthhee ccrriitteerriiaa mmiigghhtt oobbttaaiinnvviissaa-ffrreeee ttrraavveell aallrreeaaddyy bbeeffoorree tthhee eenndd ooff 22000099

4Eur op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 F o cu s o f t h i s i s s u e

Brussels' oli-garchy, well

known for itsMachiavel l ianapproach hasconcluded that

its colonial interests and appetites inMontenegro and the region will bebest served by the current govern-ment of the Democratic Party ofSocialists (DPS).

This is why the European Unionis happy to accept even the "polished"reports of Montenegrin agencies andministries without excessive scepti-cism, in spite of the fact that "theeveryday reality in Montenegro testi-fies to the opposite".

This is the answer of the profes-sor of political psychology Dr FFiilliipp

KKoovvaa~~eevvii}} the question posed by theEuropean Pulse - why do part of theMontenegrin civil sector and someopposition parties view Montenegro'sprogress in European integrations dif-ferently from the ruling coalition andEuropean Commission (EC).

In spite of the devastation of theenvironment which continues at thesame bitter pace, in spite of theParliament which is barely function-ing, RTCG as a public service direct-ly controlled by the ruling structures,in spite of accusations against thefunctionaries of the ruling party for theabuse of office which are all collect-ing dusts in the lower drawers of the

local courts…Brussels has noted,more and more often as 5 November,

the date of submission of EC ProgressReports approaches, substantial

progress of Montenegro on the roadof European Integrations.

How did the EC officials manageto overnight turn the conclusions ofthe last year's progress report, such asthat "corruption is widespread" or that"little progress has been made in theprevention of money laundering" intostatements that Montenegro is farahead of its neighbours in the integra-tion process and that it has progressedsubstantially in fighting crime and cor-ruption?

"Can you imagine any country ofthe world, except for the corruptbanana republics, whose institutionswould calmly watch as unknownindividuals ravage the protected areaof the seaside? Did you notice thatthe European officials in Podgoricahad nothing to say on the issue, asthey did not earlier, in the case of

Kova~evi} believes that the opposition should give up on the illusion that ECmight democratise Montenegro. "European Commission supports the current government, and thus

becomes a direct obstacle to the ambition of Montenegrin citizens to emanci-pate themselves from one twenty years long rule of a single party and to final-ly institute democratic multi-party system", Kova~evi} said.

According to him they only possible basis for democratisation ofMontenegro is the principle of changing the parties in government.

"Montenegro can only be democratised by votes of its own citizens. Ibelieve that only a democratic Montenegro, with a government without lack-eys and mortgages, can fight for its interests with the neo-colonialists inBrussels. As for the Montenegrin opposition, I believe that their only solutionis to make a principled coalition and go to elections together. This can bedone, for instance, on the platform of social justice and equality. This shouldall be done in the next 2-3 months, for already there are some signs of earlyelections coming", Kova~evi} said.

EEEECCCC AAAANNNN OOOOBBBBSSSSTTTTAAAACCCCLLLLEEEE FFFFOOOORRRR TTTTHHHHEEEE CCCCHHHHAAAANNNNGGGGEEEE OOOOFFFF RRRREEEEGGGGIIIIMMMMEEEE

W H Y D O C I V I L S E C T O R A N D T H E O P P O S I T I O N P A R T I E S V I E W M O N T E N E G R O ' SP R O G R E S S D I F F E R E N T L Y F R O M I T S G O V E R N M E N T A N D E C

phot

o VI

JEST

I

Filip Kova~evi}

BBrruusssseellss'' oolliiggaarrcchhyy iiss hhaappppyy ttoo aacccceepptt eevveenn tthhee ""ppoolliisshheedd"" rreeppoorrttss ooffMMoonntteenneeggrriinn iinnssttiittuuttiioonnss wwiitthhoouutt sscceeppttiicciissmm,, iinn ssppiittee ooff tthhee ffaacctt tthhaatttthhee ""ddaaiillyy rreeaalliittiieess ooff MMoonntteenneeggrroo pprroovvee tthheemm wwrroonngg aatt eevveerryy sstteepp"",,bbeeccaauussee tthheeyy ddeecciiddeedd tthhaatt tthheeiirr ccoolloonniiaall iinntteerreessttss wwiillll bbee bbeesstt rreepp-rreesseenntteedd bbyy tthhee ccuurrrreenntt ggoovveerrnnmmeenntt,, ssaayyss DDrr FFiilliipp KKoovvaa~~eevvii}}

by Danilo Mihajlovi}

////////Nbdijbwfmmjbo!ps!cjbtfe

5Eu r op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 F o cu s o f t h i s i s s u e

Zavala? What is the use of European"integrations" if it doesn't help to con-demn flagrant violations of the exist-ing laws?" Kova~evi} asked.

Recent praises for the progress ofMontenegro by the head of the ECDelegation to Podgorica LLeeooppoollddMMaauurreerr come as no surprise toKova~evi}. "Evidently, the Montenegringovernment has worked off or willwork off certain "deals" which are ofgreat importance to European com-missionaires. That may be connectedto the delay of application for thecandidate status. It is also possible thatwe are yet to discover what the dealswere all about", Kova~evi} said.

However, executive director ofCentre for Civic Education (CCE)DDaalliibboorrkkaa UUlljjaarreevvii}} finds other reasonsfor European Commission's praises."International community is not suffi-

ciently committed to understandingour problems and adequatelyresponding to them. We are in a waya victim of a certain regional context- we have the least capacity to createsomething bad in the region, and wethus automatically become a positivecase. Inside the country, however, thiscomes back with revenge, like aboomerang", Uljarevi} said.

She adds that European Unioncan be of great help to Montenegro,if only it cares to help, because thisclub of 27 countries owns convincingmechanisms to entice compliancewhich are often "the only argumentthat the ruling structures are willing tounderstand".

MMiiooddrraagg VVuukkoovvii}}, an official ofthe Democratic Party of Socialists(DPS) and the president of the parlia-mentary International Relations andEuropean Integrations Committee hasa different view of the situation.

He claims that all relevant inter-national actors see "at least some

progress" in Montenegro, and the onlyones who do not see it or who aredisappointed by it are the "quasi-alternatives, who prefer to spit fire oneverything".

Vukovi} says that, in their criticalattitude towards everything that goeson in Montenegro "one undefinedpolitical and societal alternative"agreed to organise a competition inthe discipline "who can slanderMontenegro more".

"They are always at it, regardless

of what we do or what the objectiveoutside observers have to say aboutMontenegro. One should ask thosenon-governmental organisations whythey criticise event those things thatdo not deserve criticism", Vukovi}said.

He adds that this only demon-strates the lack of political and socialresponsibility of some actors, sincethey, he said, only think that democ-racy is what they think it is.

Vukovi}, however, admits thatone should be critical aboutMontenegro's progress to EU so far,since "it can always be better", butadds that he will not be lecturedabout it by parties whose leadersresolve their differences with screw-drivers, parties whose leaders areaccused of dictatorial behaviour orthose who keep on falling apart fromone day to another.

"Seen all together, it is clear thatthere is no such thing as a democrat-ic alternative, only the most blatantchaos and not a few of them are act-ing anti-Montenegrin... Our state has along history, but a modest democratictradition. You cannot defeat centuriesof conservativism in Montenegro inmere fifteen years", he said.

Asked why then the EC hasemphasised the problems of crimeand corruption in one report, and

Uljarevi} says that she heard several times in her conversations with EU offi-cials that Montenegrin opposition is not serious enough and that there isn't

a strong alternative to the government. "My personal response is that the international community did not do

enough to create such an alternative. If we watch and analyse the situation inthe region, we will see that the things never change on their own, nor doeschange rely exclusively on internal dynamics. There was always and everywherea sizeable international support to democratic processes, except in Montenegro,where such support is really minimal. We must put more effort, both the civilsociety and the opposition, to stimulate the international community to be ourally in democratising the society, and to bring the point of the European inte-grations home: that this is a process of transforming our society into a demo-cratic one", Uljarevi} said.

TTTTHHHHIIIINNNNGGGGSSSS NNNNEEEEVVVVEEEERRRR CCCCHHHHAAAANNNNGGGGEEEEOOOONNNN TTTTHHHHEEEEIIIIRRRR OOOOWWWWNNNN

MMoonntteenneeggrroo iiss iinn aa wwaayy aa vviiccttiimm ooff aa cceerrttaaiinn rreeggiioonnaall ccoonntteexxtt - wweehhaavvee tthhee lleeaasstt ccaappaacciittyy ttoo ccrreeaattee ssoommeetthhiinngg bbaadd iinn tthhee rreeggiioonn,, aannddtthhuuss bbyy ddeeffiinniittiioonn wwee bbeeccoommee aa ppoossiittiivvee eexxaammppllee,, ssaayyss DDaalliibboorrkkaaUUlljjaarreevvii}}

Daliborka Uljarevi}

6Eur op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 F o cu s o f t h i s i s s u e

praised Montenegro's progress inanother, Vukovi} replied that "oneshould be careful with such conclu-sions of the international community,as these reports are partly based oninputs from the local writers, whokeep writing to various addressesevery day and create different imagesof the same phenomena".

"There is the bureaucratic-admin-istrative Brussels, and the other, thepolitical one. I will remind you thatOOllllii RReehhnn, the first man of EUenlargement, said two months agothat Montenegro is a regional leaderin the fight against corruption andorganised crime. But he finished witha coma, not a period... these pests donot have a nationality, it is an interna-tional phenomenon and is often morepresent in certain EU members thanin Montenegro. And right after such

statements you will here the racket ofour local legal and moral monumentswho see thieves and criminals ineveryone and everywhere", Vukovi}said.

He adds that some institutions

also finance certain NGOs whoseprojects and programmes do not havea speck of positive intentions.

"Often certain structures wouldoffer assistance to Montenegro viathose quasi alternative structures, whofirst eat up the money, and next comeup with the result - that Montenegrois a bad environment for investing intodemocracy. When you sum it up,everybody loses", Vukovi} said.

Noting that the public speculateson whether the EC Report will bepositive or negative, secretary of theSecretariat for European IntegrationsAAnnaa VVuukkaaddiinnoovvii}} says that, after all,annual progress reports compiled andpublished by the Commission forevery candidate or potential candidatecountry "aren't good or bad, black orwhite".

"European Commission monitors

all areas and for every area it evalu-ates the degree of progress.Somewhere they find more, some-where less progress, but it doesn'tmean that the situation in that area isnecessarily better or worse. We should

always bear in mind that the ECReport is not an evaluation of the cur-rent situation, but of progress in com-parison to the previous year",Vukadinovi} emphasised.

She adds that EC provides rec-ommendations for further action inevery area.

"And of course we have to domore in every area, otherwise wewould already be in the EU. EC reportwill provide the evaluation of progressand evaluation of the weaker points,and it all depends what you chose toread once our political scene startscommenting on the report",Vukadinovi} said.

European Pulse also asked oneofficial in the European Commissionabout measurements of a country'sprogress in various areas and whetherdiplomats from the more influentialEU states can pressure EC to moder-ate its views of a given state for thesake of the current political prioritiesof the Community. We were told thatbefore the report is published they arenot allowed to comment on its con-tent or the more or less importantitems, and that we can find method-ology summarised in the annualreports.

TThhee aauutthhoorr iiss aa jjoouurrnnaalliisstt ooff tthheeddaaiillyy nneewwssppaappeerr ""VViijjeessttii""

Uljarevi} believes that the 2008 Progress Report will be positive, thereforeconfirming that our government is good at simulating reforms."Should the Report turn out to be overwhelmingly positive, this will be bad

also for the process of European integrations. Simply, it will only encourage thegovernment to continue simulating reforms, and we know that they are verygood at it", Uljarevi} said.

She draws attention to the many new initiatives of the last few months."It is not a coincidence that the case of Morinj and other similar cases have

been opened just before the completion of the Progress Report for Montenegroin order to cover up for numerous shortcomings and sluggishness of the reformprocess... Unfortunately, the current government has lost the sense for the pub-lic good long ago, and these last signs of the beginning of this process are forced,insufficient and very questionable with regard to future developments", empha-sised the director of CCE.

AAAA PPPPOOOOSSSSIIIITTTTIIIIVVVVEEEE RRRREEEEPPPPOOOORRRRTTTT IIIISSSSBBBBAAAADDDD FFFFOOOORRRR IIIINNNNTTTTEEEEGGGGRRRRAAAATTTTIIIIOOOONNNNSSSS

AAllll rreelleevvaanntt iinntteerrnnaattiioonnaall aaccttoorrss sseeee ""aatt lleeaasstt ssoommee"" pprrooggrreessss iinn MMoonn-tteenneeggrroo,, aanndd tthhee oonnllyy oonneess wwhhoo aarree bbootthheerreedd bbyy iitt aarree oonnee ""uunnddee-ffiinneedd ppoolliittiiccaall aanndd ssoocciiaall aalltteerrnnaattiivvee"".. TThhiiss oonnllyy pprroovveess tthhee llaacckk ooffssoocciiaall aanndd ppoolliittiiccaall rreessppoonnssiibbiilliittyy aammoonngg tthheemm,, ssaayyss MMiiooddrraagg VVuukkoovvii}}

phot

o VI

JEST

I

Miodrag Vukovi}

7Eu r op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 Ana ly s e s

It was instruc-tive to watch a

confused reac-tion of one reg-ular visitor andcontributor tovarious blogs

from a few weeks ago, who wasshocked to discover that, try as shemay to remain informed, she musthave missed out on some importantdevelopments in the country. Thecause of confusion was the visit of theEuropean Union High Representativefor Foreign and Security Policy JavierSolana, who met with the prime min-ister Milo \ukanovi} and afterwardstold the journalists that \ukanovi} is atrue leader and that Montenegro issteadily grabbing towards the potentialmembership in EU. All this whilst ourconcerned fellow citizen was con-vinced that Montenegro is advancingat a snail's pace although it could beprogressing faster, and that the keyreason why it remains so much behindis precisely the lack of will among thepolitical leaders to transformMontenegro into a well functioningstate ruled by law.

Now, after The West has trumpet-ed the message that Montenegro is anideal young democracy with capableand responsible leadership, one startsto doubt. Solana is a politician, like\ukanovi}, and laudations to the lat-ter could be interpreted in the light ofthe current political interests. But he isnot alone. Many independent, expertvoices paint the picture of Montenegroas a success story in the complex andturbulent Balkans.

For instance, Slovenian analystBoris Grgi~, director of the LjubljanaInstitute for Strategic Studies, wrote acomment for the Wall Street Journalwhere he urged the EU to acceptMontenegro as a member as soon aspossible, and to accord it candidatestatus as early as 2009.

"Given the size of Montenegro,EU could absorb this country at virtu-ally no cost. With a population of only680 000 people, there is hardly anyrisk that Montenegrin labour forcewould "flood" the EU market. In fact,the economy of this country is sodynamic that few Montenegrins wouldever dream of emigrating! Should EUrefuse to absorb such a small country

a Montenegro, what are the chancesfor the bigger players, such as Serbiaor Albania, to ever join EU?", asksGrgi~.

According to him, Montenegro isquickly progressing in reforms, farahead of the regional average, but itseems that EU finds Montenegro'sprogress in the Balkans, as that ofGeorgia in the Caucasian region,embarrassing.

"Montenegro is a living example ofregional success...If Montenegro doesnot get the status of candidate for EUmembership this year, the message forthe rest of the region will be crystalclear. Radicals will have strong groundsto argue that EU is not serious aboutrecognising Balkan countries and willuse this powerful lever to blackmailthe reformer who are currently in thegovernment", Grgi~ said.

The message of this Slovenianexpert, who is a frequent guest at

closed meetings in various Europeancapitals which have an impact on thedirection of the official EU policies, isprobably a good indicator of the suc-cess with which the Montenegrin lead-ership deals both with the West andwith the local public. Or, of\ukanovi}'s political skills. And skilledpoliticians are good at selling fog.What is going on?

The ruling parties know whatBrussels' needs to hear and keeprepeating it - Montenegro is a stablecountry without internal turmoil, withpositive macroeconomic indicators,low inflation rates and falling unem-ployment rate. It has excellent relationswith all of its neighbours and as suchis a bright example in the region.

Which seems to be the only thingthat matters at this moment to Brusselsas well Washington. Faced withKosovo, uncertain future of Bosnia andHerzegovina, potentially eruptiveMacedonia and Serbia which still

threads the edge of the nationalistblade, an observer can only feel reliefat the thought of Montenegro. Add toit highly optimistic, albeit dubious,results of the National Statistics Bureauand Boris Grgi~'s conclusions seemindisputable.

What remains is the dilemmawhether Montenegro defies KarlPopper's theory that those outside ofthe circle see into it better than thoseinside. Those who see the bright torchof Montenegro in the regional darknessshould ask whether in this happydemocracy there is equality before lawor a rule of the few privileged who canbend the law, the courts and urbani-sation and spatial plans to their ownliking. And if the bearers of this torchfail to seize the day and clean up theyard while there's still light, they riskpushing this country into a dark abyssruled by modern feudalists. With serfsunaccustomed to revolt.

W H Y I S M O N T E N E G R O T H E B R I G H T E X A M P L E I N T H E R E G I O N ?

by Ne|eljko Rudovi}

Gph!tfmmfst

GGrrggii~~''ss mmeessssaaggee iiss pprroobbaabbllyy aa ggoooodd iinnddiiccaattoorr ooff tthhee ssuucccceessss wwiitthhwwhhiicchh tthhee MMoonntteenneeggrriinn lleeaaddeerrsshhiipp ddeeaallss bbootthh wwiitthh tthhee WWeesstt aannddwwiitthh tthhee llooccaall ppuubblliicc.. OOrr,, ooff ||uukkaannoovvii}}''ss ppoolliittiiccaall sskkiillllss.. AAnndd sskkiillllppoolliittiicciiaannss aarree ggoooodd aatt sseelllliinngg ffoogg

////////

8Eur op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 I n t e r v i ew

Secretary of the Secretariat forEuropean Integrations (SEI) Ana

Vukadinovi} says she expects theProgress Report on Montenegro for2008 to be "affirmative".

"We are in contact with theEuropean Commission and at allmeetings of the Interim Committeesand the subcommittees we receivedcongratulations for the efforts weinvested in all areas we discussed. Ihope that Montenegro's efforts so farwill be objectively acknowledged bythe European Commission and thatEU will recognise the progress wemade to a lesser or greater degree inall areas" said Vukadinovi} for theEuropean Pulse.

Is there anything else but thecommunication which you had withEuropean Commission representa-tives to support your optimism aboutthe upcoming Report?

The Government just adoptedthe third Annex to the Annual

Progress Report, and will submit it tothe European Commission on 3October.

Preparations for this annex con-firmed to us that progress has beenmade in all areas, from judiciary toimplementation, strengthening ofadministrative capacities, whether interms of creating new institutions toimplement legal regulations orrecruiting additional people who havebeen adequately trained and areready to implement these laws andwork on their further harmonisation.

Where has there been themost, and where the least progress?

The answer to that question islikely to be subjective. Every area isimportant, especially when we aretalking about implementing standardsand fulfilling economic and politicalcriteria. In my opinion, one sector

which underwent the most intensivetransformation in the last year isjudiciary, where a lot has been doneonce the new Constitution was inplace.

How do you explain the factthat still there are no "big fish"behind the bars?

Reform of the judiciary andprosecution is a process which con-tinues and must last longer than inmany other areas. This is not a ques-tion of adopting one or two laws tobe harmonised with European legis-lation and easily implemented.

We should not forget that areas

such as judiciary, fight against cor-ruption and crime are always thefocus of public attention also in thedeveloped countries. Even in thosecountries it sometime takes years ofinvestigation and trials of "small fish"to put the "big fish" behind bars.

It is sometimes easy to criticiseour own flaws - but we should com-pare the length of court trials, per-centages of completed cases andsimilar indicators of judiciary effi-ciency with other similar countries.This is the only way to build a real-istic picture of ourselves.

What is your opinion on theprotests from the opposition partiesthat some laws, for instance the lawon telecommunications and CentralBank are not in line with EU regula-tions?

The National Programme forIntegration (NPI) contains a dynamicplan of harmonisation with EU regu-lations. In line with NPI those twolaws have been harmonised with agreat number of EU directives, andpartially harmonised with otherdirectives, with a deadline for fullharmonisation with EU regulations.

Some voices from the civil sec-tor have warned that Brussels hadpolitical reasons in mind, not theactual progress, when it had to pickout a bright spot in the region and itpicked Montenegro?

I firmly believe that Montenegrodid achieve actual progress, and thework and contacts of SEI keep con-firming this.

As for the countries in theregion, we have good cooperationwith everyone in the integrationprocess, we exchange good and badexperiences and learn from eachother.

Obviously, internal political

S E I S E C R E T A R Y A N A V U K A D I N O V I ] S A Y S F O R E U R O P E A N P U L S E T H A T S H EE X P E C T S A P O S I T I V E R E P O R T F R O M E C

Kvejdjbsz!uif!dibnqjpo!pg!sfgpsnt

Ana Vukadinovi}

phot

o VI

JEST

I

WWee sshhoouulldd nnoott ffoorrggeett tthhaatt aarreeaass ssuucchh aass jjuuddiicciiaarryy,, ffiigghhtt aaggaaiinnssttccoorrrruuppttiioonn aanndd ccrriimmee aarree aallwwaayyss tthhee ffooccuuss ooff ppuubblliicc aatttteennttiioonn aallssooiinn tthhee ddeevveellooppeedd ccoouunnttrriieess.. EEvveenn iinn tthhoossee ccoouunnttrriieess iitt ssoommeettiimmeettaakkeess yyeeaarrss ooff iinnvveessttiiggaattiioonn aanndd ttrriiaallss ooff ""ssmmaallll ffiisshh"" ttoo ppuutt tthhee ""bbiiggffiisshh"" bbeehhiinndd bbaarrss

9Eur op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 I n t e r v i ew

developments in each of these coun-tries will affect their path to EU, butalso that of the region as a whole. Itis in the interest of Montenegro thateach of these countries should over-come their problems and intensifytheir integration efforts, which canonly be a positive stimulus toMontenegro.

On the other hand, it is true thatMontenegro has no severe politicalor other problems that could be aserious obstacle for the process ofaccession to EU.

From your office, you are ina position to give an accurate invest-ment of administrative capacities inMontenegro. Have they beenstrengthened in the last 12 months?

I am truly delighted with thedevelopment of administrativecapacities, and we have also com-municated our positive impressionswith EU representatives, as it seemsthat we have achieved decentralisa-tion of European integration process.

Until last year we had one rep-resentative on average in other min-istries dealing with European integra-

tions, and he or she was our contactperson for different issues. Then wehad the Commission for EuropeanIntegrations and seven workinggroups which brought in new peoplefrom different areas.

In the meantime we worked onNPI, and more than 400 peoplecooperated on this document, we alllearned, improved our knowledge,especially in the area of Europeanlaw. The level of knowledge andunderstanding of the European inte-grations process in state administra-tion today is even hard to compareto that of only a year ago.

Everybody realised that Eu-ropean integrations are not the "job"of SEI but are responsibility of allemployees in all ministries and otherpublic institutions, who prepare lawsand regulations and implement

them. The cooperation has beenhighly improved and everybodyworks together as a well-trainedteam.

Until perhaps a year and a halfago we had one person coming tothe meetings of the sub-committees

and talking about several issues, butnow we have a process where wehave to agree at least a month inadvance on speakers, specific topics,the meetings include reports, advi-sors, presentations. This is why theEC representatives have been verysatisfied with our administration at allmeetings.

While working on NPI we alsorealised which are the areas wherecapacities are not sufficiently devel-oped, in the sense that we have lit-tle knowledge or too few employeeswho are comfortable with working inthat area. The result was that weincreased the number of employeesin all ministries and institutions.

This is also the case with IPAprogramme (Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance). Until a year ana half ago our institutions hardlyknew what that was all about, buttoday things are very different.

Are you saying that the inter-est for IPA has increased since yourcall a few months ago for local com-munities, NGOs and others to getinvolved in the process in order toexploit the opportunities offered bycross-bborder cooperation progra-mmes?

Secretariat, in cooperation withexperts and donors, has worked hardon raising awareness about the avail-ability of EU funds for the imple-mentation projects made in cooper-ation with partners from borderregions of the neighbouring states.

Last year, when we organised

seminars on the municipal level, weonly got as far as vague ideas aboutparticipating in some cross-borderprojects, but today almost one half ofmunicipalities have special divisionswith two to four people who workspecifically on international coopera-

tion, working on the projects ofcross-border cooperation.

As for the programmes currentlyavailable to Montenegrin partners,we had 20 applicants for MED pro-gramme (requiring partnership withthree EU states), and four projectsgot through the very demanding firstround of evaluations, which isanother indicators of rising interestfor such projects in Montenegro.Cooperation in South-East Europeprogramme call received 106 appli-cations with project partners fromMontenegro, and 43 projects passedthe first round of evaluations.

It is important that our localgovernments, NGOs, public institu-tions and others realise that this isthe period when they need to searchfor a partner on the other side of theborder and to develop projects thatwill improve economic situation,social cohesion and environmentalprotection.

What do you expect from theNational Council for EuropeanIntegrations, given the events thatfollowed its establishment?

First of all, I am happy that wehave the National Council forEuropean Integrations (NCEI). It con-sists of representatives of differentstructures and offers a broader per-spective on the process of Europeanintegrations. We therefore expect toreceive genuine inputs, useful sug-gestions, open cooperation andexchange of opinions from NCEI,without over-politicisation of issues,genuine cooperation which can ben-efit the whole society.

V. @UGI]

IItt iiss ttrruuee tthhaatt MMoonntteenneeggrroo hhaass nnoo sseevveerree ppoolliittiiccaall oorr ootthheerr pprroobb-lleemmss tthhaatt ccoouulldd bbee aa sseerriioouuss oobbssttaaccllee ffoorr tthhee pprroocceessss ooff aacccceessssiioonnttoo EEUU

TThhee lleevveell ooff kknnoowwlleeddggee aanndd uunnddeerrssttaannddiinngg ooff tthhee EEuurrooppeeaann iinnttee-ggrraattiioonnss pprroocceessss iinn ppuubblliicc aaddmmiinniissttrraattiioonn ttooddaayy iiss eevveenn hhaarrdd ttooccoommppaarree ttoo tthhaatt ooff oonnllyy aa yyeeaarr aaggoo

10Eur op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 Eur op ean ba r ome t e r i n Mon t en eg r o

Let very English priest make a publicapology to DDaarrwwiinn, and let the

infernal CERN accelerator roar from theabyss of the underworld- I stand firmin my conviction that the Russian emis-sary to Montenegro was led by noother but the inexorable power of theAlmighty, and the one from the OldTestament too, who was not famous forthe sense of humour and love of smallpeoples.

He who rules everything meantthe Russian minister for emergencysituations to wheel over just a fewdays after we heard that OOlleeggDDeerriippaasskkaa is aiming at half of theMontenegrin budget and is ready topursue his wounded Slavic rightthrough courts and courts, wounded,to make things even worse, by thepeople of the same blood; a peoplethat was always ready to stuff its pen-itentiaries with the Russian name onall lips and with tearful eyes turned tothe new Jerusalem and to the Tsar ofall Muscovites.

They asked SShhooyygguu why he came.Journalists, these dodgy sort concoctedby the West, provocateurs and trou-blemakers asked - why did you comeover batyushka - and he says - I havecome, my dearest, to see you: the bit-

ter borsch Deripaska cooked up hecan munch up on his own; I will sellyou a few helicopters to defend youfrom fire, and this is why I came. Anddo not ask me questions in English, askme in Russian or in Serbian Slavic,Shoygy said briskly. And moreover hesaid: KAP is Deripaska's private busi-ness.

That the local reserve of alumini-um is Deripaska's private thing is clear,and that private discussions are had in

bars we know well, outside of the pro-tocol if possible for protocol is aninvention of the Western man who issunk in formalities.

Had DDuukkee met the imperial emis-sary in Ma{a or in Grand we wouldhave known they are talking KAP, mus-ing over private business, i.e. privatisa-tion. As it is, Shoygu rode over to seethat we are well, took a bath in @anjice

and already he is flying back, chasingwho knows what more serious businessset to him by an imperial administra-tion on the rise.

But why should one feline person-ality like Shoygu ask the journalists toswallow their English is a damn inter-esting question.

Is it possible that the hard boileddiplomat showed considerations for ourprime minister's predicament? Hardly,there must be something bigger at

stake. Seryozha is trying to show us thevibrancy of Russian, to return credibil-ity to its great literature, send a mes-sage to the department in Nik{i}: keepgoing, mother Russia is on your side.

The rumour has it that even the alltimes peoples' favourite "With Russianswe are three hundred million" wasskipped for the occasion, all to avoidmentioning the ominous numberdemanded in euros by Deripaska andhis clique.

Another story goes that Shoyguasked \\uukkaannoovvii}} in advance to cleanthe meeting room of all aluminium, tothe last teaspoon that could turn thisfriendly conversation to the heavy topicof one unpleasant misunderstanding.

The Government was so consider-ate not to whine to its citizens - by thesuperior NNjjeeggoo{{'s cannon it has quietlysuffered inside, careful not to disturbthe presidential elections, their legiti-macy, the tourist season and the suc-cess of the red Sharks. That's aGovernment you can trust - the peo-ple are already saddled with so many

by Brano Mandi}

AA ssttoorryy ggooeess tthhaatt SShhooyygguu aasskkeedd \\uukkaannoovvii}} iinn aaddvvaannccee ttoo cclleeaann tthheemmeeeettiinngg rroooomm ooff aallll aalluummiinniiuumm,, ttoo tthhee llaasstt tteeaassppoooonn tthhaatt ccoouullddttuurrnn tthhiiss ffrriieennddllyy ccoonnvveerrssaattiioonn ttoo tthhee hheeaavvyy ttooppiicc ooff oonnee uunnpplleeaass-aanntt mmiissuunnddeerrssttaannddiinngg

Gspn!evtl!up!epxo

11Eu r op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 Eur op ean ba r ome t e r i n Mon t en eg r o

troubles of their own, why bur-den them with just any scuttle-butt?

It was the same line of rea-soning taken up by presidentVVuujjaannoovvii}} at a certain funeral,when he thanked the formerhead of the secret police for allhe did with citizen's knowledge,but even more for his deeds thecommon mortals have no clueabout. State business is the taskof the chosen ones who had for-saken their own lives, who tookover the burden and the sacra-ment of the holy communion tolead the people across the cliff oftransition. The best would be totell the folk there's a gorgeunderneath - half of us wouldfall from the sheer terror in theface of anti-national chimerasour leaders have to struggle withwhile we sleep tight in the shineof the colour bar on RTCG.

So curse on him, Oleg theOligarch, who, disregarding the fragilityof our democracy and the nationalinterest of one brotherly country, madesuch a fuss about his troubles with theAluminium Combine, the one hebought at the bar. What did he expect,that the waiters will stenograph it andthe bartender guarantee the construc-tion of the thermal plant with his life?Whoever saw any good from being abarfly, anyway? History teaches us that

anything that begins in places that serveyou beer ends badly.

But lets pretentiously sum it up:two historical moments are crucial forthis story.

Decisive. One was when our eter-nally young prime minister, sick andtired of his clerk's pay, announced thathe owns millions. The second waswhen the latter received a bill fromMoscow for 300 million euros. Thevery same Russia that sent fans to theEuropean championship under a flag

with the picture of Peter the Great. Serbia too only mentioned a gas

pipeline and already it got the bigbrother eager to help. Russia racketingthe Balkans, surprise, surprise. It wasonly a matter of time when the powerto which you comfortably yielded halfof your economy will step up the pres-sure. Times mass, times acceleration...Like in that add for Partner: with Russiayou are never alone.

But it gives you shivers when you

see that it all goes on by the best ColdWar recipe, that every rot takes at leastten months before it goes public, if itgoes public. In our rayon muzhiks arebusy discussing the linguistic justifica-tions of a phoneme (S) and politics isleft to the family, not the biological butthe social one.

If you aren't that kind of familyman, all you can do is elaborate con-spiracy theories and wait for them tocome true. Then you get the conspira-cy practice: a Russian minister with two

model helicopters who refusesto speak English and mentionsfire. To chill your bones! Andjust when you think he reallycame to collect the debt, hebangs a shoe on the table andcries NJET!, Shoygu says it's allright. Like it was all right the lastten months.

And what strange onomas-tics hovers over Chernogorica:Shoygu, Deripaska... where arethe good old names likeBBeelloosstteennyyiinn, KKrriilloovv, TTvveerrddoohhllee-bboovv... what are those Russians ingloves, Russian gentlemen, stableon their feet, brusque, cold,precise! Just the guys you wantto have in court against you, andlose. O the boson of Higgs, ifyou are out there, protect us!

Say, how can you stay calmwhen PPuuttiinn's crisis minister inthe middle of your homelandscorns English language. And just

when we were beginning to get used toanglicisms, to think in Euro-Atlanticterms, dream of Marshall plans, teardown Berlin walls, let women out ofthe house. At the seminars we are told:we live in a world of global security,the world is not polarised any more, it'sonly the past playing tricks on us, thereare no more camps, Russia isn't athreat to sovereignty and the US isn'teither. We are all united in the fightagainst terrorism. There is no rivalrybetween China and America, on thecontrary, they are intensively cooperat-ing on preventing disasters. We willonly be sending doctors to Afghanistan,etc. etc.

You will realise you are on the wayto go mad from all this when you firststart to choke, around 19:30. It's yourbody revolting. Russian quick fix forhangovers, votka, points to the road torecovery. One should just watch moreand more news from the public serviceand fight fire with fire. You will slowlystart feeling that everything is in goodhands. Relax. Enter the model of theRussian helicopter and flush. Harasho.

The author is a journalist of thedaily newspaper "Vijesti""

SSaayy,, hhooww ccaann yyoouu ssttaayy ccaallmm wwhheenn PPuuttiinn''ss ccrriissiiss mmiinniisstteerr iinn tthheemmiiddddllee ooff yyoouurr hhoommeellaanndd ssccoorrnnss EEnngglliisshh llaanngguuaaggee.. AAnndd jjuusstt wwhheennwwee wweerree bbeeggiinnnniinngg ttoo ggeett uusseedd ttoo aanngglliicciissmmss,, ttoo tthhiinnkk iinn EEuurroo-AAttllaannttiicc tteerrmmss,, ddrreeaamm ooff MMaarrsshhaallll ppllaannss,, tteeaarr ddoowwnn BBeerrlliinn wwaallllss,, lleettwwoommeenn oouutt ooff tthhee hhoouussee

12Eu r op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 Po l i cy

For centuries,the Balkans

have stood fors o m e t h i n g'European, butnot quite so'.

More recently, this claim has beenproven after the fall of the IronCurtain, when the EU was taken

aback by the bloody dissolution ofYugoslavia. Somehow, the eventsthat tormented the region for overa decade reviving the old splintersinspired the association of theterm 'balkanization' with fragmen-tation, rather than with integration.

To the outside world, thissouthern, dark corner of Europelooked as a gloomy, underdevel-oped and frightening place. Hence,among other things, it is this stig-ma, the stigma of backwardnessthat the Balkans' countries want todispose of. Then 'Europe' becomesthe keyword. Europe of today, or aEurope of tomorrow - it does notmatter so much: for as long as it iscalled Europe. Yet - that Europecomes with a catch - the 'Lisboncatch'?

And what is the 'Lisbon catch'?The current legal and institutionalstructures of the EU can accom-modate 27 Member States. And -first come, first served - that isexactly how many countries there

are in the club at the moment. TheBalkans' lineup tallies two candi-date countries, and - dependingon the count (on which the EUitself does not have a consolidatedview) - four or five potential can-didates.

These countries - one or twoof which 'must-not-be-named' forreasons of political correctness -are at present involved with anumber of reforms, targeted ataccommodating their systems to

the requirements posed beforethem by the EU. Considering theirpast experience - an extrememakeover. And what if the doorsremain stuck for the animatedparty, which spent years on chang-ing their apparel and manners? Adisappointment, perhaps? Indeed,it will be rather difficult to explain

to the Balkans' voters that afteryears of commitment to reforms,their hopes of standing on equalfooting with the rest of Europehave been dismantled.

So - YES - the Irish 'No' didcome as a strong blow for theBalkan countries aspiring to EUmembership. And what would bethe implications of the ReformTreaty for the Balkan countries

otherwise? Not many, actually, asthey would be required to acceptthe new vision of Europe if theywanted to join the club. Allnewly acceded countries havebeen asked to do so. In any case,a number of policies adopted bythe Balkan countries have alreadybeen made in Brussels, anyways.They would just have to betransplanted into national legisla-tion. By entering the EU, theBalkan countries would actuallyget some leverage in formulatingthem.

Still, none of this can happenbefore the EU itself 'catch'-esLisboa (or something else for thatmatter), and enables its institution-al structures to absorb newMember States. The all-timeEuroskeptic Danes and Brits havealready deposited their signaturesin Rome, but the Celtic Tiger is stillwandering around the prairies…Inthe meanwhile, the Balkan coun-

tries are doing their makeovers,hoping that the doors will openonce they ring the bell… In vari-etate concordia?

The author is a PhD candidateat the Centre of InternationalStudies at the University ofCambridge (Murray EdwardsCollege), and senior associate ofInstitute Alternativa

C A N D I D A T E C O U N T R I E S ' A N D P O T E N T I A L C A N D I D A T E C O U N T R I E S ' P R O S P E C T SF O R E U M E M B E R S H I P I N T H E L I G H T O F T H E I R I S H " N O "

by Jelena D`anki}

////////

AAnndd wwhhaatt iiff tthhee ddoooorrss rreemmaaiinn ssttuucckk ffoorr tthhee aanniimmaatteedd ppaarrttyy,, wwhhiicchhssppeenntt yyeeaarrss oonn cchhaannggiinngg tthheeiirr aappppaarreell aanndd mmaannnneerrss?? AA ddiissaappppooiinntt-mmeenntt,, ppeerrhhaappss??

TThhee aallll-ttiimmee EEuurroosskkeeppttiicc DDaanneess aanndd BBrriittss hhaavvee aallrreeaaddyy ddeeppoossiitteeddtthheeiirr ssiiggnnaattuurreess iinn RRoommee,, bbuutt tthhee CCeellttiicc TTiiggeerr iiss ssttiillll wwaannddeerriinnggaarroouunndd tthhee pprraaiirriieess……IInn tthhee mmeeaannwwhhiillee,, tthhee BBaallkkaannss ccoouunnttrriieess aarreeddooiinngg tthheeiirr mmaakkeeoovveerrss,, hhooppiinngg tthhaatt tthhee ddoooorrss wwiillll ooppeenn oonnccee tthheeyyrriinngg tthhee bbeellll

Uif!Mjtcpo!dbudi!boe!uif!Cbmlbot

13Eu r op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 R e s e a r ch e s

With a corruption index of 3.4Montenegro shares 84th place

with Serbia and Albania, which puts itin the group of countries which haveserious problems with corruption.These are the results of this year'sCorruption Perception Index (CPI) ofTransparency International, the mostrepresentative global corruption sur-vey which includes a record 180countries.

Montenegro has made a smallstep forward compared to last year,when it took 85th place and wasplaced among the most corrupt andleast developed countries of Europewith an index of 3.3.

CPI index is derived from a min-imum of three out of thirteen surveysconducted in the last two years,mostly among businesspeople andinvestors.

Among the West Balkan coun-tries, Bosnia and Herzegovina has thelowest rank, with an index of 3.2,which is 0.1 points lower than in2007.

While Serbia remained at thesame level as last year, Albania madea substantial jump - in 2007, it hadan index of 2.9 and ranked 105th.

Similarly, Croatia progressed for0.3 index points, and now has a scoreof 4.4 and is 62th on the list. Croatia

already improved its score last year -from 3.4 to 4.1, which means that inmere two years it progressed for anentire index point.

Transparency International surveyresults indicate that corruption is stillone of the main challenges in thecountries of the region and an obsta-cle on their road towards EU mem-bership. In the conclusion, the reportemphasises that "in spite of significantreforms and external stimuli in theframework of EU pre-accessionprocess Croatia, Macedonia, Mon-tenegro, Serbia and Bosnia andHerzegovina did not significantlyimprove the situation with regard tofight against corruption. Except forTurkey and Albania, there was verylittle progress in this field, in spite ofall activities undertaken in combatingthis problem and in spite of promisesof the heads of these states to makefight against corruption the key ele-ment of reforms on their path to EUmembership".

Montenegrin executive believesthat the progress made by Mon-tenegro in combating corruption isgreater than it appears to be.

Director of the Directorate forAnti-Corruption Initiative VesnaRatkovi} said that Montenegro is nev-ertheless advancing its fight againstcorruption and promised much betterranking for next year.

prepared by: Petar \UKANOVI]

O N T H I S Y E A R ' S L I S T O F T R A N S P A R E N C Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L M O N T E N E G R OS H A R E S 8 4 TH P L A C E W I T H A L B A N I A A N D S E R B I A

Denmark leads the CPI index list as a country with least corruption and ascore of 9.3, and is closely followed by Sweden and New Zealand.Among the countries with the most rampant corruption problem

Transparency International lists Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Myanmar and finallySomalia, with a corruption index score 1.

FFRROOMM DDEENNMMAARRKK TTOO SSOOMMAALLIIAA

According to the survey, Slovenia holds 26th place with a score of 6.7 (from 6.6in 2007) and is ahead of many "old" EU members, such as Spain, Portugal,

Italy and Greece. Bulgaria, which shared the 64th place last year with Croatia(score 4.1) dropped several points to 3.6 and is now sharing 72nd place withMacedonia.

For Macedonia, the same place means progress of 0.3 points from 3.3 scorein 2007. Romania, which grew 0.6 points last year continues to improve, but onlyslightly - from 3.7 to 3.8, which makes it 70th on the list.

SSLLOOVVEENNIIAA AAHHEEAADD OOFF OOLLDD EEUU MMEEMMBBEERRSS

B!tnbmm!tufq!gpsxbse

14Eur op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 F r om o t h e r med i a

Entrepreneurs from EuropeanUnion member states can partic-

ipate in the public procurement callsand procedure in Montenegro underthe same conditions that apply tothe Montenegrin entrepreneurs.

This is the way to establish freemarket foundations and to preventbudget losses through contractingproducts and services at higher thanmarket prices. This is also a com-mitment ensuing from one of theclauses of the Stabilisation andAssociation Agreement (SAA). It canbe used by all economic subjects inthe EU, regardless of whether they

were founded in our country or arebased in one of the EU states. Inorder to implement the new regula-tions in practice and to achievegreater transparency and protectionof rights in the domain of publicprocurement on the Montenegrinterritory a new software solution andelectronic public procurement sys-tem will be installed with support ofthe IPA programme.

Although this was alreadypromised in last year's report of thePublic Procurement Directory, itturns out that the realisation of theproject also depends on the avail-able funding and the development

of this institution in the upcomingperiod.

These are the words of thedirector for public procurements,Mersad Mujevi}, the new softwarewill enable development of theelectronic system of public procure-ments.

"This would improve the exist-ing public procurement system inMontenegro and connect it with theEuropean system", says Mujevi} forthe European Pulse.

In order to implement this proj-ect in the framework of IPA pro-gramme, Direction will need addi-

tional support from the state. Theproject should be completed by theend of this year.

At the moment, it is not possi-ble to introduce an electronic sys-tem of public procurement because

Montenegro does not yet have anestablished system of electronic lists,electronic trade, regulations onadministrative procedures regardingelectronic submission of files anddocuments nor public procurement.

Similarly, the countries in theregion, or indeed most of theEuropean Union countries do notyet have an electronic public pro-curement system.

"Bearing in mind the level ofdevelopment in Montenegro, assoon as the law on public procure-ments is in force we will be able toprovide a lawful, comprehensivefunctioning of the public procure-ment system in line with the con-temporary European practice,European standards and EU direc-tives in this area", Mujevi} said.

He believes that harmonisingthe national public procurementsystems among the EU memberstates constitutes one of the bestinstruments for strengthening theinternal market and removing barri-

P R E P A R I N G I M P L E M E N T A T I O N O F A N I M P O R T A N T C L A U S E I N S A A

Tppo!b!mjol!up!uif!Fvspqfbo!qvcmjd!qspdvsfnfou!tztufn

SSAAAA ssttiippuullaatteess tthhaatt eennttrreepprreenneeuurrss ffrroomm EEUU mmeemmbbeerr ssttaatteess ccaann ppaarr-ttiicciippaattee iinn tthhee ppuubblliicc pprrooccuurreemmeenntt ccaallllss aanndd pprroocceedduurreess iinnMMoonntteenneeggrroo uunnddeerr tthhee ssaammee ccoonnddiittiioonnss tthhaatt aappppllyy ttoo tthheeMMoonntteenneeggrriinn eennttrreepprreenneeuurrss.. TThhiiss iiss tthhee wwaayy ttoo eessttaabblliisshh ffrreeee mmaarr-kkeett ffoouunnddaattiioonnss aanndd ttoo pprreevveenntt bbuuddggeett lloosssseess tthhrroouugghh ccoonnttrraaccttiinnggpprroodduuccttss aanndd sseerrvviicceess aatt hhiigghheerr-tthhaann-mmaarrkkeett pprriicceess

Mersad Mujevi}

phot

o VI

JEST

I

AA nneeww ssooffttwwaarree ssoolluuttiioonn ffoorr eelleeccttrroonniicc ppuubblliicc pprrooccuurreemmeenntt ssyysstteemmwwiillll bbee iinnssttaalllleedd iinn oorrddeerr ttoo iimmpplleemmeenntt tthhee nneeww rreegguullaattiioonnss aannddeennssuurree ggrreeaatteerr ttrraannssppaarreennccyy iinn tthhee ddoommaaiinn ooff ppuubblliicc pprrooccuurreemmeennttiinn MMoonntteenneeggrroo

15Eu r op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 F r om o t h e r med i a

ers to free trade."Open, non-discriminatory and

transparent actions only reinforcepositive competition among theactor in the public procurementmarkets. Only those actors whoneed to compete with foreign com-panies are capable of successfulperformance both in the foreignmarkets and in their domestic mar-ket", Mujevi} said.

According to him, the goal ofpublic procurement regulations is toestablish a minimum set of commoncriteria that would protect basicprinciples from the Treaty onEuropean Union (non-discrimina-tion and freedoms) in the domain ofpublic procurement.

"Member states, which ourcountry also aspires to become, candemand stricter rules in theirnational legislation, if these rules donot exhibit a discriminatory effect,i.e. they do not limit participation offoreign companies based inEuropean Union in their nationalmarkets", Mujevi} said.

These common regulations con-cern the public procurementregimes with regard to public con-tracts, terms of use, technical spec-

ifications, rules of announcement,criteria for the selection of candi-dates, choice of the best offer...

He adds that the basic princi-

ples of public procurement havebeen laid out in the Article 2 of the2004/18 EC directive and in Article10 of the 2004/17 EC directive -that "the contracting party ought toact transparently, equally and with-

out discrimination towards all eco-nomic operators".

As in the report on all otherinstitutions, this one too has been

judged to employ too few qualifiedcadres, and is suffering from a lackof funds necessary to implement therelevant commitments of Monte-negro in the European integrationprocess.

The report of the Directorate forPublic Procurement states that "pub-lic institutions spend too muchmoney on public procurement" andadds that competition in public pro-curement is the "key to efficientmanagement of public money"which "helps public actors to acquirethe necessary products and servicesat better quality and lower price".

It is emphasised that applicationof adequate public procurementprocedures and greater competitionlead to lower prices of public con-tracts, ensuring that "the taxpayers'money is spent more efficiently,more jobs are created, developmentgenerated and greater overall com-petitiveness achieved".

DDrraaggaannaa BBAABBOOVVII]]

According to the report, Montenegro had more than 800 entities in 2007that are subject to the law on public procurement. Total estimated value of public procurement, excluding smaller expendi-

tures amounts to 411 992 511. 45 euros, and contracted value to 389 143574.5 euros (with VAT). Out of this amount, state offices have spent 92 194888 euros, public institutions and public companies 163 294 788, local gov-ernment offices 123 682 117, and local public companies and public institu-tions 9 971 780.34 euros.

Savings from the public procurement procedures (excluding low valuetransactions - shopping or indirect agreement) amount to 22 848 936.95 eurosor 5.55%. The value of public procurement in low-value transactions (shop-ping and indirect agreements) is 17 519 464 euros, out of which 10 749070.95 for shopping and 6 770 393,77 for indirect agreement procedures,altogether 4.3% of public procurement value.

Total contractual value of all public procurement in Montenegro for 2007(including low value transactions) was 406 663 039.28 euros.

HHHHAAAALLLLFFFF AAAA BBBBIIIILLLLLLLLIIIIOOOONNNN FFFFOOOORRRR PPPPUUUUBBBBLLLLIIIICCCC PPPPRRRROOOOCCCCUUUURRRREEEEMMMMEEEENNNNTTTT

TThhee rreeppoorrtt ooff tthhee DDiirreeccttoorraattee ffoorr PPuubblliicc PPrrooccuurreemmeenntt ssttaatteess tthhaatt""ppuubblliicc iinnssttiittuuttiioonnss ssppeenndd ttoooo mmuucchh mmoonneeyy oonn ppuubblliicc pprrooccuurreemmeenntt""aanndd aaddddss tthhaatt ccoommppeettiittiioonn iinn ppuubblliicc pprrooccuurreemmeenntt iiss tthhee ""kkeeyy ttooeeffffiicciieenntt mmaannaaggeemmeenntt ooff ppuubblliicc mmoonneeyy""

16Eur op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 F r om my p o in t o f v i ew

Thinking of theconcept of

European Unionand the geo-graphic definitionof Europe, I can-

not but wonder about where the realborder lies. Trying to answer this ques-tion and at the same time trying toshare my thoughts with the readers Ihave chosen a particular angle of pres-entation.

I will tell you about the attractionsof EU for me, from the prism of stu-dents' life here and in Europe. I had achance to attend lectures, seminars andconferences organised by law studentsacross Europe and that helped me tosee the borders clearly. And it gave memotivation to think about why we wantto be in the EU, being a part of Europealready.

Putting together a mosaic of sightsand events I experienced on my trav-els, I was most impressed by culture. Ibelieve that culture really moves allborders, but it is painful to first hit thelimitations when as a student you first

step on EU territory. Travels to Italy, Greece, Portugal,

France, Belgium...all left gorgeousmemories, but also a desire to makemy country part of the same club. I willtell here only about my trip to Brussels,as this is a synonym for EU.

Passing the passport control zoneat the Brussels airport in the "non EUcountries" section, I found the factunimportant on the first day. Later on,

however, after I spent about ten daysin this country and made friends witharound fifty students from various partsof Europe, I felt the flame of jealousyinside me, on the very day I returnedto Montenegro. We all flew at aboutthe same time, and at the passportcontrol they just strolled across to thegates, without a moment's delay. Ihowever, "naturally" remained in thelong and slow "non EU countries" line.And for the first time I felt the differ-ence between what is possible for usand what is possible for EU citizens.

However, walking down the streetsof old Brussels which still smell of freshwaffles and chocolate, watching themilitary parade before the royal family,beautiful fireworks I saw from the ParkVan Brussel, the unforgettable squareand park of King Albert, Atomium, lec-

tures at the VUB or St Louis, a visit tomagical Bruges are all details that out-weigh the awkwardness of standing inthe "non EU countries" zone.

When talking to the colleaguesfrom European universities I alwaystried to describe the beauties of our

country, culture and spirit of ourregions, knowing that there is some-thing beyond the economic, political,commercial and security considerationsthat comes with membership in theEU. This is the window from which Isee EU - the possibility of culturalexchange, enjoying learning aboutdiversity within this single community.To discover different places, historicalsites and landscapes, and still to love

our own, whatever we have to offer -this is what I wish to all other studentsfrom Montenegro, to know that outthere exists this beautiful and perfectdiversity that makes us all richer. Ofcourse, without waiting in the "non-EU"zone.

The second frame in which I oftensee EU is that of student mobility. It istrue that our universities are alreadyapplying the principles of BolognaDeclaration, but I wonder whether weare really using the advantages of thisdifferent approach to studying. In away, a synonym for the BolognaProcess is student mobility, but our stu-dents are hardly mobile. Travel experi-ences of my EU colleagues, their expe-rience of studying law at other univer-sities, their practical skills, internshipsand scholarship opportunities are way

above anything we can boast now. Ifwe also bear in mind the fact that evenwhen financial opportunities exist veryfew of our students decide to take upstudies or internships abroad simplybecause of the organisation of theexam period, our students' "mobility"consists of the trip from home to uni-versity and back.

There are many ways in which Ilike to think about EU, but let thesetwo suffice for now. I hope that futuregenerations will be learning about EUalso through our country, from inside,and not from the outlook of their lone-ly "non EU countries" island where weare now standing.

The author is the vice president ofELSA Montenegro for internationalcooperation. He attended VII genera-tion of European Integrations School

W H Y D O I W A N T T O B E A C I T I Z E N O F E U R O P E

by Mirko \ukovi}

////////Op!xbjujoh!jo!uif!#opo.FV#!{pof

AA ssyynnoonnyymm ffoorr tthhee BBoollooggnnaa PPrroocceessss iiss ssttuuddeenntt mmoobbiilliittyy,, bbuutt oouurrssttuuddeennttss aarree hhaarrddllyy mmoobbiillee

TThheerree iiss ssoommeetthhiinngg bbeeyyoonndd tthhee eeccoonnoommiicc,, ppoolliittiiccaall,, ccoommmmeerrcciiaallaanndd sseeccuurriittyy ccoonnssiiddeerraattiioonnss tthhaatt ccoommeess wwiitthh mmeemmbbeerrsshhiipp iinn tthheeEEUU.. TThhiiss iiss tthhee wwiinnddooww ffrroomm wwhhiicchh II sseeee EEUU - tthhee ppoossssiibbiilliittyy ooffccuullttuurraall eexxcchhaannggee,, eennjjooyyiinngg lleeaarrnniinngg aabboouutt ddiivveerrssiittyy wwiitthhiinn tthhiiss ssiinn-ggllee ccoommmmuunniittyy

17Eu r op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 O f f t h e w i r e

European Commission is to proposea new set of animal slaughter regu-

lations to replace the existing rules inorder to limit pain and suffering ofanimals.

"As a society we ought to care forthe animals, and that involves reducingsuffering at slaughter. The current EUregulations are obsolescent and oughtto be updated", says the HealthCommissionaire Androulla Vassiliou.

The proposal calls for regularmonitoring techniques after the ani-mals are stunned to ensure they donot regain consciousness beforeslaughter. Every slaughter house will

have to appoint a responsible personto oversee implementation of animalwelfare measures. Small slaughterhouses will be exempted from thisrule, but the activists have called forbetter trained staff in slaughterhouses.None of the existing stunning tech-niques will be banned, but the regula-tion includes a precise definition ofrequired stunning conditions for eachspecies. The best known techniquesinvolve using carbon-dioxide or elec-tricity.

Every year, nearly 360 millionpigs, sheep, goats and cattle and sev-eral billion poultry are killed in the EU.

According to a recent study of theViennese European Brand Institute,

the most valuable European brand is theFinnish mobile phone maker Nokia,which is worth 38.283 billion euros.

Follows Moet Hennessy - Louis Vuittonfrom France worth 34.907 billion andthe British mobile communications con-cern Vodafone with 24.128 billion.Among the ten most valuable are alsothree German brands: automobile mak-ers Mercedes Benz and BMW, as well asDeutsche Bank. The institute makes theranking on the basis of a survey of 3000firms from 24 countries and 16 indus-tries. Among the first 50 most valuableEuropean brands 15 are from Germany.

In the top ten most valuableEuropean brands are also SpanishTelefonica, Dutch-British concernUnilever, the Royal Bank of Scotlandand France Telecom.

FFFFrrrroooommmm 2222000011111111 eeeeuuuurrrrooooiiiinnnnsssstttteeeeaaaadddd ooooffff zzzzlllloooottttyyyy

Poland, the biggest new EU memberannounced plans to introduce euro

as its official currency in 2011. Thegreatest challenge for the PolishGovernment in this respect will be theMaastricht criterion which requirescurbing inflation.

NNNNoooo ssssmmmmooookkkkiiiinnnnggggiiiinnnn bbbbaaaarrrrssss

The Croatian Government will soonpropose a law to the Parliament

completely banning smoking in publicplaces.

The proposal envisages a full banon smoking in all educational, healthand social institutions as well as work-places. In bars smoking will be allowedonly on terraces, and restaurants willhave to have a special smoking roomwhere they cannot serve food ordrinks.

"Among the Croatian citizens 32%are smokers and 68% are non-smok-ers, and we want both to protect thosewho do not smoke and convincesmokers to change their habits", saidthe health minister DDaarrkkoo MMiilliinnoovvii}}.

IIIInnnnffff llllaaaatttt iiiioooonnnn ssss lllloooowwwwllll yyyyffffaaaa llll llll iiiinnnngggg

Inflation rate in the 15 Eurozonecountries was 3.8%, or slightly less

than in the previous months. Recordinflation was noted in July, 4%,because of the rising fuel prices, withoil at 150 dollars per barrel, which isthe highest in history.

Only 36.1% of Norwegians supportNorway's accession to EU, claim

the results of the opinion poll conduct-ed by research institute Sentio.

According to an early Septemberpoll, 9.5% of the citizens of this countrydo not have an attitude towards theeventual membership of this country inthe EU, which currently numbers 27states. The poll was conducted on asample of respondents older than 18, orin other words persons with voting rights.

The results, among other, showedthat opposition towards EU membership

is equally present in all regions of thecountry, except for Oslo, the capital.The number of opponents has grown forthe last three and a half years also in theLabour Party, the main party in the rul-ing coalition, as well as in the opposi-tion Progress Party.

Norway has rejected the option ofjoining EU at two referendums, in 1972and 1994. However, this country isclosely collaborating with EU through theEuropean Economic Area Agreement,which offers the members of EEA freeaccess to the EU internal market.

Sfevdf!tvggfsjoh!bu!tmbvhiufs

Opsxfhjbot!fwfs!mftt!joufsftufe!jo!FV

Opljb-!Mpvjt!Wvjuupo-!Wpebgpo///

18Eur op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 EU cha l l eng e s

Centre for European PoliticalStudies from Brussels (CEPS)

has recently warned that the work-ers from East European EU mem-ber states who come to work inthe old members have beenexposed to discrimination. Thereport of this organisation statesthat the violations range frombureaucratic obstacles to realcrimes of hate, such as intimida-tion, emotional molestation,delayed wages, refusal of wages,work without contract and withoutright to holidays and social protec-tion. All these are, the reportwarns, frequent enough.

Although most member statesremoved restrictions for workersfrom East European Members, theydid not guarantee them equalrights stipulated in the Europeantreaties, says Professor CCaarrbbyy HHaallll,author of the report.

He said that many EastEuropean migrants have to dealwith a system he called "modernslavery".

Labour migration has becomea global phenomenon. By the endof 2007 2.3 million people leftPoland to find work abroad, and

1.9 million of them headed forone of the EU member states.

Free movement of persons isone of the fundamental freedomsguaranteed by community law(Article 39 of the EC Treaty) and is

also an essential element ofEuropean citizenship. Communityrules on free movement of workersalso apply to member states of theEuropean Economic Area (ie toIceland, Liechtenstein and Norway).

In an attempt to address thecomplex implications of the EU's2004 enlargement, several memberstates from the EU-15 introduced'transitional restrictions' on themovement of the labour force fromthe new member states. TheAccession Treaty allows for theintroduction of 'transitional meas-ures', commonly referred to in EUcircles as the '2+3+2-yeararrangement'. In other words, "old"members can restrict the right to

the freedom of movement ofworkers from the new countries fora maximum of seven years afterthese countries joined theEuropean Union, but are obligedto declare themselves after the firsttwo, and then the three years ofthe transition period.

The restrictions will definitelyend on 30 April 2011 for workersfrom Poland, Lithuania, Latvia,Estonia, the Czech Republic,Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia,and for those from Romania andBulgaria on 1 January 2014.

There is more reluctance toopen the labour markets towardsthe countries of the last enlarge-

O L D E R E U M E M B E R S A R E N O T R E A D Y T O W E L C O M E W O R K E R S F R O M E A S TE U R O P E A N C O U N T R I E S

Npefso!tmbwfsz!jo!#pme!Fvspqf#

TThhee rreessttrriiccttiioonnss wwiillll ddeeffiinniitteellyy eenndd oonn 3300 AApprriill 22001111 ffoorr wwoorrkkeerrssffrroomm PPoollaanndd,, LLiitthhuuaanniiaa,, LLaattvviiaa,, EEssttoonniiaa,, tthhee CCzzeecchh RReeppuubblliicc,,SSlloovvaakkiiaa,, HHuunnggaarryy aanndd SSlloovveenniiaa,, aanndd ffoorr tthhoossee ffrroomm RRoommaanniiaa aannddBBuullggaarriiaa oonn 11 JJaannuuaarryy 22001144.. TThheerree iiss mmoorree rreelluuccttaannccee ttoo ooppeenn tthheellaabboouurr mmaarrkkeettss ttoowwaarrddss tthhee ccoouunnttrriieess ooff tthhee llaasstt eennllaarrggeemmeenntt -BBuullggaarriiaa aanndd RRoommaanniiaa.. AAllll EEUU-1155 ccoouunnttrriieess wwiitthh tthhee eexxcceeppttiioonn ooffSSwweeddeenn aanndd FFiinnllaanndd ddeecciiddeedd ttoo rreessttrriicctt BBuullggaarriiaannss'' aanndd RRoommaanniiaannss''aacccceessss ttoo tthheeiirr llaabboouurr mmaarrkkeett..

Most countries maintained some transitional restrictions, but after 2006many decided to partially or completely open their labour markets to the

citizens of the new member states. Denmark was the first to open its borders,while Belgium, France and the Netherlands are proceeding more cautiously.Although France and Belgium have relatively high unemployment (9.8 and8.6% respectively), the situation is not the same in all sectors, and the EastEuropean workers are much more readily welcomed in those sectors wherequalified labour is in short supply - social and health care, hotels and cater-ing, transport and construction.

NNNNOOOO RRRREEEESSSSTTTTRRRRIIIICCCCTTTTIIIIOOOONNNNSSSS FFFFOOOORRRR WWWWOOOORRRRKKKKEEEERRRRSSSS IIIINNNN SSSSHHHHOOOORRRRTTTT SSSSUUUUPPPPPPPPLLLLYYYY

19Eur op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 EU cha l l eng e s

ment - Bulgaria and Romania. AllEU-15 countries with the excep-tion of Sweden and Finland decid-ed to restrict Bulgarians' andRomanians' access to their labourmarket. Italy considers allowingRomanians an Bulgarians in once aEuropean agreement on combatingorganised crime is found, andFrance announced that it willinclude workers from the twocountries into its scheme of secto-rial barrier-lifting. All "new" EUmembers, on the other hand,decided to open their labour mar-kets to Bulgarians and Romanians -with the exception of Malta, whichcontricts access, and of Hungary,which imposes some conditions.

What should cause more con-cern among Bulgarians andRomanians is the fact that evenfour years into the transitionalperiod, the old member statesremain split over easing access totheir labour markets by their east-ern neighbours.

Some of the EU's strongest andwealthiest 'old' member statescontinue to restrict access to theirlabour markets by workers fromEastern Europe, with Germany andAustria leading the way.

European Commission pub-lished a report two years whichshows that very few citizens fromthe new member states were actu-ally moving to the EU-15. TheEuropean Commission has warnedthat transitional restrictions shouldbe phased out as soon as possible.

"The relatively small number ofEast European workers migrating toEU15 does not constitute the influxthat would justify fears. In themeantime, the unexpected prolif-eration of complex national quotasand qualitative restrictions under-mines the Lisbon strategy for flex-ible markets and a skilled, mobilelabour force," says the formerEuropean Commissionaire MMaarriioo

MMoonnttii. Employment Commissioner

VVllaaddiimmiirr SSppiiddllaa also said that freemovement of workers has not haddisruptive effects on the EU-15labour market.

"Quite the contrary - individ-ual countries, and Europe as awhole, have benefited from it", hesaid.

Germany's State Secretary forEmployment GGeerrdd AAnnddrreess said,however, that the EuropeanCommission report might havebeen too optimistic, as it does nottake into account the effect oftransition periods, and that a lotdepends on the geographical posi-tion, which makes Germany mostvulnerable to an influx of workersfrom the East.

The government of Germanyhas decided to maintain therestrictions in place at least until2009. One main reason cited byBerlin is high unemployment,especially in the federal states bor-dering the Czech Republic andPoland.

The European Commission,however, warned that unemploy-ment is not a sufficiently good rea-son and that in order to maintainthe transitory measures beyond

2009, Germany must prove severedistortions of its labour market.

The same requirement appliesfor Austria, which also announcedprolongation of restrictions forworkers from Eastern Europe.Unemployment in Austria is rela-tively low, but, according to theAustrian labour minister MMaarrttiinnBBaarrtteennsstteeiinn, "the long-term forecastis a cause for pessimism".

Dilemmas about the organisa-tion of the internal EU labour mar-ket and free movement of workersare the consequence not only ofthe current economic problems,but of the concerns about futureenlargements. If and when Turkeybecomes a member of the EU, thiscountry of 70 million people willbe second only to Germany interms of the size of its population.Turkey itself has almost the samenumber of citizens as the ten newmember states combined. Thelabour market implications of theEU's current enlargement, alongwith the conclusions reached fromthe current transition period, willcertainly have a bearing on theway the EU can handle all futureenlargements.

VV..@@..-VV..[[..

Only UK, Sweden and Ireland decided not to impose transitional measuresin the first wave of "Eastern" enlargements. The open-borders policy led

to estimated labour immigration of 450.000 to 600.000 within just two yearsfollowing the enlargement, or about 30-fold of what was previously expected.In spite of the undoubtedly positive impact that the immigration has had onthe British economy, the UK government decided not to apply a similarly lib-eral scheme to Romanian and Bulgarian job-seekers. Only a few experts inselected areas and 20,000 unskilled workers for the food processing and agri-culture industries will be allowed into Britain.

The same is the case with Ireland, which arguably profited most from lib-eralising its labour market for migrants from Eastern Europe. The Irish Economicand Social Research Institute says that the country needs an influx of around50,000 workers a year to continue growing at the present high pace, but theIrish government argues that the eight East-Central European countries so farprovide a "sufficient supply".

SSOO FFAARR SSOO GGOOOODD

20Eur op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 V i ews

Any serious political party ought to,in addition to continuous work in

its own country, establish and main-tain international contacts, and con-sequently to be a part of certaininternational associations. To be apart of an international network ofparties means being closer to Europeand to the European values and stan-dards which are the goal of our soci-ety, but it also means having an allyin advocating the implementation ofthese standards and values in yourown country.

This is how Goran \urovi}, highofficial in the Movement for Changes(MfC), explained the decision of itsparty to join European Peoples Party,outlining the advantages of member-ship in international association in theinterview for European Pulse.

EPP is the most numerous andmost influential group in theEuropean Parliament with 288 MPs.Leading figures from the EuropeanParliament and European CommissionHans Gert Pottering and Jose ManuelBarroso are from EPP, and as many as11 prime ministers of EU memberstates comes from a party member ofEuropean Peoples Party.

"Every contact establishedthrough membership in one of thestrongest international associationswhich gather serious political partiesfrom all over Europe certainly meansgreater opportunities for showingourselves in a better, positive lightbefore EU", \urovi} added.

He finds it regrettable that so farthe opposition parties in Montenegrodid not recognise the importance ofconnections with similar parties inEurope.

"Certainly, we must not forgetthat the Liberal Alliance was memberof the Liberal International, but Ibelieve they failed to utilise this fact

adequately. Socialist Peoples Partywhich for the longest time was thestrongest opposition party could neverbecome part of the SocialistInternational because of its past andconnections with Milo{evi}'s regime.It is clear that the leadership of SPP isnow trying to return to the basic val-ues which are the part of social-dem-ocratic heritage and thus improve itschances to apply for membership, butthe road from the wish to participateto full membership in one of the mostinfluential internationals is very longand demanding", \urovi} said.

He said that two things in par-ticular must be thought through.

"Firstly, we also have the namesof the parties which indicate theirsupposed ideological orientationwhich does not correspond to theprogrammes and actions of theseparties. The most illustrative exampleis certainly the Democratic Party ofSocialists (DPS) and the Social-Democratic Party (SDP). More pre-cisely, SDP was once really a part ofthe social-democratic credo and wasrightly accepted as a member of theSocialist International. However, thissocial-democratic element was evi-dently lost through a long-term inter-

est-based alliance with DPS, which ismany things, but hardly a bastion ofsocial-democratic values, althoughrecently they also became membersof the Socialist International.

Secondly, such as they are, bothDPS and SDP (through associate, andnow full membership) were able touse their contacts in the SocialistInternational to present themselves asthe only possible option inMontenegro and as the only partiesthat stand for democratic values.Obviously, you cannot pull the woolover someone's eyes for too long,and it is good to remember that theleader of DPS got some of thesharpest criticisms from his very "ide-ological kin", in statements by HanesSwoboda and other prominent repre-sentatives of this International",\urovi} explained.

He said that MfC, as a party ded-icated to permanent self-improvementand which recognised this weakness inthe opposition, submitted a letter ofintent to become a member to EPP inorder to utilise the full potential ofbeing a part of this club.

"It is undisputable that in thecourse of transition we have lostsome basic values and that this willmake our road to EU more thorny.Our insistence on the issues of virtue,honesty and justice is what we havein common with EPP. Tradition initself is not harmful, what is harmfulis if you insist on tradition once itstimes and context have disappeared.But certain universal values that thistradition has born ought to be ourguiding principles. In that sense, webelieve that our membership in EPPcan help to regain the best of whatMontenegro used to have and whatit always had", \urovi} concluded.

V.@

G O R A N \ U R O V I ] ( M F C ) A B O U T T H E M E M B E R S H I P O F M O N T E N E G R I N P A R T I E SI N I N T E R N A T I O N A L A S S O C I A T I O N S

Bmmjft!gps!jnqmfnfoujoh!FV!tuboebset

Goran \urovi}

phot

o VI

JEST

I

21Eu r op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 G e t t i ng a c qua in t e d w i t h Eur op ean Un i on

People within the EU institutionsand in the media dealing with EU

affairs often use 'eurojargon' wordsand expressions that they aloneunderstand. Eurojargon can be veryconfusing to the general public, whichis the reason we decided to introducethose terms for the benefit of thosewho are new yet entirely comfortablewith the field of EU integrations.

Two-sspeed Europe: Refers to thepossibilty of differentiated integration,where a smaller group of states canagree to advance further in the inte-gration process than the rest of mem-ber states.

Unanimity: When taking deci-sions on some issues, the Council ofthe European Union has to be inunanimous agreement - i.e. all coun-tries have to agree. Any disagree-ment, even by one single country, willblock the decision. This would makeprogress very difficult in a Union of27 countries, so the unanimity rulenow applies only in particularly sen-sitive areas such as asylum, taxationand the common foreign and securi-ty policy. In most fields, decisions arenow taken by qualified majority vot-ing.

Finally, we offer an overview ofabbreviations frequently used in EUinstitutions and documents:

CAP - Common AgriculturalPolicy

CARDS - Community Assistancefor Reconstruction, Democratizationand Stabilization

CBC - Cross-Border Cooperation CCP - Common Commercial

Policy CEP - Common Energy Policy CFP - Common Fisheries Policy CFSP - Common Foreign and

Security Policy DG - Within the Commission,

work is divided into Directorates -General, each under the politicalcontrol of a Commissioner

EBRD - European Bank forReconstruction and Development

ECB - European Central Bank ECJ - European Court of Justice EFTA - European Free Trade Area EIB - European Investment Bank EK - European Commission EMU - Economic and Monetary

Union EP - European Parliament G7, G7 + 1 - Group of Seven

industrialized states (USA, Canada,Japan, France, Germany, UK, Italy)now joined by Russia

GATS - General Agreement onTrade and Services

GATT - General Agreement onTariffs and Trade, superseded in 1995by the World Trade Organization

OJ - Official Journal of theEuropean Community

SEA - Single European ActTEU - Treaty on European

Union, signed at Maastricht,December 1991, setting up theEuropean Union (EU)

WTO - World Trade Orga-nization, set up in 1995 as successorto GATT

A G U I D E T O W O R D S A N D E X P R E S S I O N SF R E Q U E N T L Y U S E D B Y T H E P E O P L E W H O A R EP R O F E S S I O N A L L Y D E A L I N G W I T H E U I N T E G R A T I O N

NON - GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS IN EUROPEAN UNION

EEEEUUUURRRROOOOPPPPEEEEAAAANNNNFFFFOOOOUUUUNNNNDDDDAAAATTTTIIIIOOOONNNN FFFFOOOORRRRSSSSTTTTRRRREEEEEEEETTTT CCCCHHHHIIIILLLLDDDDRRRREEEENNNN

((((EEEEFFFFSSSSCCCC))))

EFSC is a Brussels-based organisation, foundedin 1995 on the initiative of an MP of the

European Parliament committed to improving thesituation of children at risk, and particularly streetchildren. Today, the Federation consists of a net-work of NGOs NGOs working in the field for theimprovement of the rights and living conditionsof street children.

The main objective of EFSC is to create,maintain and assist a platform of social actorsinvolved in the realisation of the fundamentalrights of excluded children with particular focuson street children.

The network seeks to achieve this objec-tive by: - Advising EU institutions and decision-makers

on policies and programmes for excluded chil-dren

- Supporting the EU institutions, national institu-tions and NGOs in implementing policies andprogrammes on street children

- Assisting less developed countries (includingEastern Europe) in implementing policies andprogrammes on marginalised groups of chil-dren;

- Rising public awareness of the problems ofstreet children

- Rising awareness of the problems of street chil-dren in EU institutions, the Member States andthe Council of Europe

- Intensifying the political debate on street chil-dren and related issues, at the level of both theEuropean Union and the Member States andthe Council of Europe;

- improving and strengthening the communica-tion, co-operation, co-ordination and exchangeof information between social NGOs, in partic-ular those working with excluded children

- Monitoring and promoting children's rights inline with the UN Convention on the Rights ofthe Child

- Organising trainings and seminars to build upexpertise and information among social work-ers, teachers and other persons whose profes-sional life is likely to be related with the prob-lems of street children

Together with similar partner organisationEFSC is also active in supporting and assistingstreet children in Latin America and South Africa.

More information on the organisation andits activities can be found at: www.enscw.org

Prepared by: Petar \UKANOVI]

Fvspkbshpo

22Eur op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 NGO a c t i v i t i e s

Centre for Monitoring (CEMI)and Centre for Civic

Education (CCE), with support bythe Stability Pact funded by theGerman Government, organised aweek long seminar for thirtyactivists from youth and studentorganisations. The seminar lastedfrom 22 to 29 September 2008and was focused on buildingcapacities in students' organisa-tions to fight corruption in all thevarious guises in which it appearsat Montenegrin universities.

The participants attended var-ious lectures and exercises helpingthem to acquire public advocacyskills and write projects for EUfunds, and a separate series ofdiscussions on the issue of theconflict of interests and corruptionin education, as well as aboutinstitutions whose job is to sup-press these deviant phenomena.

Lectures and workshops at theseminar were facilitated by:

Biljana Zekovi}, executive directorof SOS PG; Ivana Vojvodi}, pres-

ident of the youth organisationJuventas; Slobodan Lekovi}, pres-ident of the Commission for theConflict of Interests; VesnaRatkovi}, director of the Directoryfor Anti-Corruption Initiative ofthe Government of Montenegro;Zlatko Vujovi}, president CEMI;Bo{ko Nenezi}, executive directorof CEMI. The final lecture wasgiven by the ambassador of theRepublic of Germany inMontenegro Peter Platte. Theseminar is a part of a larger proj-ect aimed at combating corrup-tion in education, which is con-ducted by Centre for CivicEducation and Centre forMonitoring with support of theGerman Government.

Bhbjotu!Dpssvqujpo!jo!Fevdbujpo

NNeeww IInnii tt iiaa tt iivveessIInstitute Alternative (IA) has started this September to compile anddistribute a daily electronic summary of the Montenegrin media in

English - Institute Alternative's Daily Brief, published from Monday toFriday. Friday's edition is accompanied with a comment by one ofthe associates of Institute Alternative as well as other representativesof non-governmental organisations, University, media, trade unionsetc. who are not directly involved with the Institute but whose opin-ion opens a different angle of view on the everyday life inMontenegro.

Daily Brief is distributed daily to several hundred addresses, andtheir number continues to grow. The objective of this project is tooffer objective information to all decision-makers and those interest-ed in Montenegro's democratisation who do not speak our languagein order to assist them in making more informed decisions, assess-ments or statements. The comment offers an additional insight intothe views advocated within the Montenegrin society. The project issupported by Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

23Eur op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 NGO a c t i v i t i e s

CCeennttrree ffoorr CCiivviicc EEdduuccaattiioonn,, CCeennttrree ffoorr DDeevveellooppmmeenntt ooff NNoonn-GGoovveerrnnmmeennttaall OOrrggaanniissaattiioonnss and EEuurrooppeeaann MMoovveemmeennttiinn MMoonntteenneeggrroo,, with support of the FFoouunnddaattiioonn OOppeenn SSoocciieettyy IInnssttiittuuttee - RReeggiioonnaall OOffffiiccee iinn MMoonntteenneeggrroo

ANNOUNCE A CALL- FFoorr ppaarrttiicciippaannttss iinn tthhee VVIIII ggeenneerraattiioonn ooff -

EUROPEAN INTEGRATION SCHOOLSEuropean Integration School consists of 7 modules with a total duration of four months and encompasses a

broad spectrum of theoretical and practical knowledge in the area of European Integrations. Lectures take place twice a week, each lasting two hours (with a possibility of additional lectures) and are

complemented by seminars. Renowned lecturers and experts from country and abroad, members of the diplomatic corps in Montenegro and

others will introduce participants to the history, development and functioning of European integration process, the con-temporary shape of European institutions, their influence on our society and perspectives for cooperation in this area.

The candidates are expected to have a keen interest in acquiring new knowledge in this field and in con-tributing to the affirmation of ideas, values and standards of European integrations in Montenegro. All candidatesare welcome regardless of the gender, nationality, religion or beliefs, but the advantage will be given to thosewho demonstrate high levels of social activism in the government, non-governmental, party, trade union, eco-nomic, scientific and cultural contexts.

All costs are covered by FOSI, CGO, EMiM and CDNGO, but the participants are obliged to attend at least80% of the programme. Upon finishing the school successful participants will be awarded diplomas and a rightto future participation in similar programmes.

Applications with a short CV should be sent by 99 OOccttoobbeerr 22000088 to:

CCeennttrree ffoorr CCiivviicc EEdduuccaattiioonn((ffoorr EEuurrooppeeaann IInntteeggrraattiioonnss SScchhooooll))NNjjeeggoo{{eevvaa 3366,, 8811 000000 PPooddggoorriiccaa

oorr bbyy ffaaxx:: 002200//666655 112222 oorr ee-mmaaiill:: iinnffoo@ccggoo-ccccee..oorrgg

YOU ARE YOUNG AND WOULD LIKE TO...Change something in your environment

Learn about one of the most successful non-governmentalorganisations in Montenegro

Help us with your ideas and creativityExperience the beauty of volunteer workDevelop your self-confidence and skills

Get to know new people, new countries, different culturesLearn about team work

Work on projects that contribute to improve life of our communityGather experience that will help you decide on

your future profession...and have plenty of time, motivation for work in a non-governmental organisation and desire to dedicate yourenergy to social activism, Centre for Civic Education invites you to become our volunteer.

SSeenndd yyoouurr aapppplliiccaattiioonn ttoo iinnffoo@ccggoo-ccccee..oorrgg

24Eur op ean pu l s e N o 36

S ep t embe r , 2 0 0 8 Edu ca t i on p r og rammes i n EU

F O R T H I S I S S U E W E R E C O M M E N D :

PPHHDD PPRROOGGRRAAMMSS IINNPPOOLLIITTIICCAALL SSYYSSTTEEMMSS AANNDDIINNSSTTIITTUUTTIIOONNAALL CCHHAANNGGEEIIMMTT LLUUCCCCAA,, IITTAALLYY Scholarship / Financial aid: 15 scholar-ships each of 13.638,00 Euros grossavailableDate: 3 years stating March 2009Deadline: December 5, 2008 Open to: studentsThe PhD Program aims to make studentsfamiliar with analytical tools andmethodologies of investigation elaboratedwithin different contemporary traditionsin social sciences, thereby providing thetheoretical and practical knowledge nec-essary to both evaluate comparatively theperformance of institutional systems, andelaborate proposals for structural reforms. The courses will especially focus on thehistorical, political, institutional and eco-nomic dynamics that have been charac-terising the development of Europeanand ex Soviet countries after the Second

Word War. They will then consideramong other topics: the institutional anddecisional dynamics of European coun-tries and the European Union includingthe trends towards multilevel governanceboth at the European and at the domes-tic level (federalisation, independent reg-ulatory authorities, etc.); transatlanticrelations EU-US; relations between pol-itics, social processes and political econ-omy decisions; paths of economic andpolitical development; the institutionalworkings of international organisations;the characters of some geographicalareas of special relevance.Duration: 3 years Language: Courses and seminars are heldin English. Foreign PhD students arerequired to attend an Italian Languageand Culture Course. More information on:http://www.imtlucca.it/phd_programs/political_systems/index.php

IINNTTEERRNNAATTIIOONNAALLEEXXCCEELLLLEENNCCEESSCCHHOOLLAARRSSHHIIPPSSUUNNIIVVEERRSSIITTYY OOFFWWOOLLVVEERRHHAAMMPPTTOONN,, UUKK Scholarship / Financial aid: a total of upto 2,000 pounds is offeredDate: one yearDeadline: 1 November 2008Open to: international students who arenon-EU nationalsApplications are welcomed from interna-tional students who are non-EU nation-als. Applicants must be full-time orsandwich, undergraduate or postgraduatedegree students of the University ofWolverhampton, and should be enrolled(or intending to enrol) at the Universityeither for the first time, or for a secondaward.

Applications for this Scholarship areprocessed after your course commences,so you are encouraged to wait until youhave arrived at the University beforeapplying.Successful candidates will be awardedtwo separate payments of ?1,000, a totalof up to ?2,000. No additional paymentswill be made, and students will remainliable for the full cost of their tuition fees.More information on:http://www.wlv.ac.uk/Default.aspx?page=8332

CCFFAA:: RRIIOO && LLGGII-OOSSIIPPOOLLIICCYY WWRRIITTIINNGG &&AADDVVOOCCAACCYY SSKKIILLLLSSDDEEVVEELLOOPPMMEENNTTPPRROOGGRRAAMMMMEE FFOORR RROOMMAANNGGOO LLEEAADDEERRSSDeadline: 01.10.2008The Roma Initiatives Office (RIO) andthe Local Government and Public ServiceReform Initiative (LGI) of the OpenSociety Institute (OSI) opened a new ini-tiative targeting the development of pol-icy writing and advocacy skills of RomaNGOs, networks and experts in thecountries of the decade of RomaInclusion. The programme consists of 2training events and the supported pro-duction of a policy brief to support theadvocacy efforts of participants. It isdesigned to be run over a 2 month peri-od. The programme is planned for thefall of 2008 and will take place in 5decade countries: Macedonia,Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, andSlovakia. This choice was based on abalance of need and the ability of LGI'steam to deliver in local languages. Formore information, visit: http://lgi.osi.hu/documents.php?id=2215&m_id=19

EIC Bulletin -EEuropean pulse is electronic magazine established within EIC programme, with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.The publisher is Centre for Civic Education.

EIC Bulletin -EEuropean pulse is registered with the Ministry for Culture and Media as item No. 578 Editor in Chief: Vladan @ugi}

Editorial Board: Vera [}epanovi}, Daliborka Uljarevi}, Ne|eljko Rudovi}, Dragan Stojovi}, Vladimir Vu~ini}Tehnical Editor: Bla`o Crvenica; Language Editor: Milena Milunovi}; English Language Editor: Maja Mugo{a; Translation: Vera [}epanovi}

Njego{eva 36 / I Tel / fax: + 381 81 / 665 - 112, 665 - 327 E-mmail: eicbilten@cg.yuEIC Bulletin -EEuropean pulse can be downloaded at the www.cgo-cce.org