On a three-day visit to France, today, this Tuesday November 18, 2008 from 09:00am to 11:00am, Mr. Ranko Krivokapić, President of the Parliament of Montenegro, attended a seminar on the “European Prospects of Montenegro” at the headquarters of the French Institute of International Relations (Institut Français des Relations Internationales - IFRI), 27 rue de la Procession in Paris XVth. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Olivier Louis, Senior Research Fellow at IFRI, and President Krivokapić was accompanied on the occasion by H.E. Madam Milica Pejanović-Đurišić, Ambassador of Montenegro to France.

Founded in 1979 by Mr. Thierry de Montbrial, the IFRI is a France-based leading independent international relations center dedicated to policy-oriented research and analysis of global political affairs. Its aims is to enrich the policy making process by providing public and private sector decision-makers with strategic insights on topical international issues and emerging trends, promoting dialog on the national and international level, and fostering interaction between researchers and practitioners.
Drawing on multidisciplinary social-scientific approaches, IFRI’s areas of expertise include transatlantic relations, European construction, comparative regional studies, and cross-border issues (global governance, resource management, international migrations, etc.).

Following is the text of Mr. Ranko Krivokapić’s address at IFRI seminar “European Prospects of Montenegro”, in Paris, France, November 18:

I take this opportunity to speak in the homeland of the modern Republic and the base of philosophical democracy we are all striving for, as a special honor for the small country I represent and its parliamentary structure, especially in the times when the big, postponed issues are seeking their answers.
The French Institute for International Relations is surely the place where the wisdom of the French educators, that also gave birth to the United States of America, is courageously facing the fears of the modern times.

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To think about the European prospects of Montenegro means no doubt to look into all of its millennium-long experiences as a state, through four dynasties, since the crown granted by the Pope in 1077 — to the today’s Republic. Those experiences were always an expression of faith of belonging to that safe European harbor for our ship, that faced battle after battle in the Mediterranean.
The Republic of France contributed the most in the victory in World War I, that we celebrate now, but Montenegro was the only country that gave all — it gave its statehood. Kingdom of Montenegro joined the allied forces without reservations, although it could have opted for the golden neutrality, far back in 1914.
However, the history is an open possibility and it is exactly with the European Union that we have achieved the greatest democratic victory in our history, the renewal of independence according to the principle of a civil-multiethnic community. I am convinced that this is the biggest individual success of the EU policy in the region, as well.
We have created again the prerequisite for a stronger position that we deserve in the European fleet, before the global storm that is already striking us. We have done the same in the biggest naval battle in history, in 1571, nearby Lepanto, when our ship — St. Tripun closed the line of attack of the biggest threat to Europe at the time.
Even then, the size was not an obstacle to defend great values.

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But, each period is seeking new answers, even to the old challenges. The European prospects that should result in full EU membership, is an issue of a national interest of Montenegro. Raison d’ etre. It is a prerequisite of social development and comprehensive democratic emancipation. With the adoption of the European norms and rules of behavior, Montenegro will permanently accept the European model of living.
In the past two years, Montenegro used the favorable wind of freeing itself from the logic of the state union with Serbia, that navigated opposite to the wind of the European change in the region. Although created by the European Union, the state union navigated according to an unstable compass that kept interchanging the direction from east to west and vice versa. And the west is already to the east of us and to the south and to the north, as a system of values, culture, socio-political organization and common security of NATO. We have filed an application for the Membership Action Plan and we hope to receive a positive answer at the Summit in Strasbourg and Cologne.
We have adopted the new Constitution, in full cooperation with the Council of Europe — Venice Commission that gave a positive assessment of it. We have unanimously ratified in the Parliament the Stabilization and Association Agreement — SAA. We have adopted the National Program of Integration as an umbrella document, with precisely defined obligations in the five-year period of SAA implementation. It also serves as a document that the Government uses for its annual plan of activities. The National European Integration Council has been established, etc...
Many of the facts contained in the 2008 Progress Report, published by the European Commission, prove the assessment that Montenegro is the fastest moving country in the regatta towards the EU, which was started by the Thessaloniki Declaration in 2003. The leader of this region should be the one that fulfills the Acquis communautaire.

The Commission Report emphasizes the areas in which we need to invest additional efforts and where weaknesses are recognized, but in that respect Montenegro has made significant progress compared to the previous year.
Reform of the judiciary, based on the new constitutional structure is underway. We have created a good institutional framework for the fight against corruption and organized crime, through the establishment of specialized units in the police, the courts and the prosecutors’ offices, responsible for the fight against these phenomena. Statistical data show that processing and closing of cases regarding corruption and organized crime are significantly improved, and that the number of back log cases this year, with the reorganization of work of the judiciary, has been reduced up to 60%.
“The economy continued to expand vigorously, economic growth remained robust and pace of structural reforms accelerated” is the European Commission assessment. It is precisely stated in numbers, as follows: in the first half of 2008 we have had the real GDP growth of 8%, inflation rate 6.7%, unemployment rate 10.7%, with an increase in employment of 3.7% and more than that, when it comes to foreign seasonal work force. Foreign direct investments, which were equal to EUR 1 billion last year, or €1.600 per capita, have noted a 15% increase this year, with an improved structure. For the foreign investors, it is especially important that we have a policy to gradually reduce the fiscal burden by 2010.
In the times of a global challenge and crisis, we have to recall that energy is a necessary prerequisite for social stability in our region, as well. Montenegro is in the process of finding a strategic partner for additional capitalization of EPCG (power utility company), which is facing the cycle of construction of big hydro-power plants on the two rivers, and one new thermo-power plant. They should turn the country from energy importer to a net exporter.
Certainly, the biggest development project is the construction of the highway from the coast to the north of Montenegro, and further on, to Belgrade. This project creates the space for the development of the north and is also aimed at avoiding the mistakes of unequal regional development. We are in the final stage of selection of investors, using the method of Public-Private Partnership, in cooperation with the World Bank and Lois Berge, as consultants. We are aware that the effects of recession in the Atlantic area are still not quite obvious, but we believe that the projects in real economy, preserving sound money, are still attractive. An alternative plan is to build with our own funds the first part of the road, having in mind that the external borrowing rate is low (19.97 % of GDP), and we have saved the funds for one fifth of the investment from the privatization proceeds.
As you have heard, EU membership for us is not dominant as an economic motif, but as an imperative of joining the community of democratic values.

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RESPECTED SIRS,

We look forward to joining the Mediterranean union, as a new route of the road that was crossed from Edict from Nantes, to the last great revolutionary development in the creation of a modern state. The citizen. He has been founded through the attack on the Bastille, and with the US Constitution, and it is still the only comprehensive answer to the creation of the multiethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural societies.
We in Montenegro believe that the ethnic and religious affiliation must remain part of our cultural characteristics, and not the field for political battles.
Those are not the topics for the creation of contemporary political competition, without a previous settlement of accounts with the past, which is lost in advance.
The new Europe has set its roots in the old state of Montenegro, already in the 19th century. Development of trust with the new Muslim population has started by leaving the army units and command to them, and in the first decades by letting that population keep the Islamic code in parallel with the regular legislation. The mosques, situated in our country, which fought with the Ottoman Empire for centuries, and was lead by Orthodox bishops, are some of the oldest mosques in the Balkans. Montenegro is the first country with a predominantly Orthodox population, that signed a Concordat with the Vatican in 1886, and it later served as a model for all the other concordats with the non-catholic countries. This trust , built in the nineteenth century, served as a basis for the protection of peace in the difficult period of the nineties — the worst war conflicts in the territory of Europe after World War II.
We hope to contribute more to the community of European, but also Mediterranean nations, than what can be expressed in numbers. We will bring in an interwoven spirituality of the East and the West, that only gained its importance and weight, as the time went by.

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LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

Never in history have all the countries and nations in the Balkans belonged to just one political concept or ideology. From the division into the Western and Eastern Roman Empire, until the fall of the Berlin wall, this is the first time that historic opportunity is created for us to belong to one and the same political and economic concept. European Union is a model without a historic precedence, exactly because it offered us the strength of the democratic values, and not the impose of powers. Our region wants to join the European Union, convinced, I hope, without alternative, because we don’t need a written pardon for our sins — indulgentio, but the faith in the European justice and vision.
Part of that regional responsibility is our several years long, original initiative of the Cetinje Parliamentary Forum, but also the recognition of the Republic of Kosovo. That is all part of our process of Euro-Atlantic integration and a long-term contribution to regional stability. We have understood the Kosovo independence as one of the key policies of stabilization in the region of the Western Balkans, and as assistance to Serbia to turn towards the future.
Montenegro wants to remain a success story in the region and we are ready for the next formal act in that respect — to apply for EU membership. We are aware that the responsibility for accession is primarily our own, and the Union is already generous in assisting us to fulfill the democratic goals.

RESPECTED LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

In the end, I wish to express our intention to become part of a strong international and in many aspects supra-national structure. This is what the EU should be if it wishes to preserve the leadership of Europe in this century. As Europeans, let us not get lulled away by the fact that we are still using the benefits achieved in the period from the 15th to the 20th century, rather than offering a joint front to face the challenges of the 21st century. The regatta exists not only in the Balkans, but globally, and the European ship, without the crew assigned according to the Lisbon Agreement, has entered new challenges of recession and increased competition.
I am convinced that if our European home believes in itself to the extent, that we in Montenegro believe in it, it will face no less but a millennium long period of democratic prosperity.

Thank you!
Paris, France, November 18, 2008.

Address by Mr. Ranko Krivokapić, President of the Parliament of Montenegro, at IFRI