Transcript EU Integration Process of Montenegro Milestones and the way forward TABLE OF CONTENTS: • General information on EU enlargement • Progress Report 2014 • Education • IPA.

EU Integration Process of
Montenegro
Milestones and the way
forward
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
• General information on EU enlargement
• Progress Report 2014
• Education
• IPA assistance to Montenegro
The current enlargement agenda
How to get in: conditions
for membership
Copenhagen criteria (1993)
→ Political
– Stable democratic institutions
– Human rights, protection of
minorities
– Rule of law
→ Economic
– Functioning market economy
– Capacity to cope with
competitive forces in EU
→ Ability to take on obligations of
membership
1993 Copenhagen criteria
 Political Criteria
Membership requires that the candidate country has achieved
stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law,
human rights and respect for and protection of minorities
 Economic Criteria
Membership requires the existence of a functioning market
economy as well as the capacity to cope with competitive
pressure and market forces within the Union
 Adoption of the acquis
Membership presupposes the candidate's ability to take on the
obligations of membership including adherence to the aims of
political, economic and monetary union
 and …
 Absorption capacity
The Union's capacity to absorb new members, while maintaining
the momentum of European integration, is also an important
consideration in the general interest of both the Union and the
candidate countries.
(Copenhagen, December 1993)
Steps from potential candidate to member
Potential
candidate
submits
application
Commission
opinion →
Council
decides on
candidate
status
1
Continuous
monitoring of
progress
2
4
European
Parliament
has to give
consent
Accession
negotiations
3
States
sign & ratify
accession
treaty
5
Enlargement toolkit
→ Reporting, monitoring
→
Enlargement package 2014 (8th October 2014)
→ Network of agreements; economic & political
dialogue
→ Financial & technical assistance
Accession Negotiations
→
Adoption of established EU law & rules
→
→
→
Stabilisation and Association Process
→
→
35 policy chapters (the "acquis")
Judicial, economic, administrative and other reforms to
meet conditions
Ever-closer partnership with the EU: trade concessions,
economic & political dialogue
Continuous Reporting, monitoring
Negotiations chapters
1. Free movement of goods
2. Freedom of movement for workers
3. Right of establishment and
freedom to provide services
4. Free movement of capital
5. Public procurement
6. Company law
7. Intellectual property law
8. Competition policy
9. Financial services
10. Information society and media
11. Agriculture
12. Food safety, veterinary, phytosanitary
13. Fisheries
14. Transport policy
15. Energy
16. Taxation
17. Economic and monetary policy
18. Statistics
19. Social policy and employment
20. Enterprise and industrial policy
21. Trans-European Networks
22. Regional policy and coordination of
structural instruments
23. Judiciary and fundamental rights
24. Justice, freedom and security
25. Science and research
26. Education and culture
27. Environment
28. Consumers and health protection
29. Customs union
30. External relations
31. Foreign security and defence policy
32. Financial control
33. Financial and budgetary provisions
34. Institutions
35. Other issues
Negotiations – in detail
→
Conditions and timing – not content
are negotiated
→
Screening
→
→
→
Negotiating positions
→
→
Examination of each policy field (chapter)
Open negotiations (or set benchmarks)
Closing benchmarks
Duration of negotiations depends on speed of reform and
alignment with EU laws in candidate country
Montenegro
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
SAA signed in October 2007. Application to join
the EU submitted in December 2008
Commission Opinion issued in November 2010
Granted candidate status: December 2010
Accession negotiations started in June 2012
Screening meetings completed in June 2013
Two Chapters (25-26) opened and
provisionally closed in 2012/2013
Another 10 chapters opened (04-05-06-07-1020-23-24-31-32) opened since December 2013
Opening benchmarks in 11 chapters
Progress report 2014
"Montenegro has taken further steps in
accession negotiations. Twelve chapters
have been opened. Implementation of rule
of law reforms has started. Tangible results
are now needed and will be key to
determining the overall pace of the
accession negotiations.
Government
• adopted a number of strategic documents in the context of the EU
•
•
•
integration process, including the 2014-2018 EU accession
programme
structures for the accession negotiations were further
strengthened
Transparent, efficient and accountable local administration needs
to be established
The criteria for creating new municipalities should include financial
and administrative sustainability
Parliament
• The transparency of parliament’s work continued to be
•
•
strengthened through direct interaction with citizens and replies to
all requests for access to information
Parliament’s legislative activity has grown and needs to continue
to be strengthened.
Parliament has continued to increase its
oversight role, including through control and consultative hearings.
Public Administration
• Strategic framework for public administration reform in place
• Policy development and coordination across the sectors are
•
•
operational, but need to be further improved
The plan for the reorganisation of the public sector, as part of the
public administration reform (PAR) strategy, was published in
November
Montenegro still needs to develop a comprehensive public
financial management reform programme
Judicial system
• Key reforms of the recruitment, promotion and disciplinary
•
•
•
•
systems for judges and prosecutors are still pending
The length of proceedings has decreased, and overall courts
managed to solve considerably more cases than in the previous
year
The efficiency of the judiciary should increase further
Parliament finally agreed on the appointment of a new Supreme
State Prosecutor
Independent and impartial functioning of the Judicial and
Prosecutorial Councils needs to be ensured, and their staffing and
budget increased
Fight against organised crime
• Montenegro has continued to develop a track record in the fight
•
•
against drugs, and new cases were opened on people smuggling,
more needs to be done to combat trafficking in human beings,
cybercrime and money laundering
Financial investigations to map and confiscate the financial flows of
criminal organisations are underused. There have been no new
cases of seizures of criminal assets
The anti-money laundering administration has a high staff
turnover, the number of suspicious transactions reported and
investigated continues to be very low
Fight against corruption
• The institutional and operational capacity of prosecutors, judges
•
•
and police to fight corruption remains insufficient
In the area of anti-corruption, several important measures in the
action plan are behind schedule, in particular the adoption of
legislation. While many technical tasks have been carried out,
overall the impact of anti-corruption measures has led to limited
tangible results
Fighting organised crime and corruption is fundamental to
countering criminal infiltration of the political, legal and economic
systems
Human Rights
• Montenegro continued to respect international human rights
•
•
•
•
instruments
In the field of prevention of torture and ill-treatment, the
amendments to the law on the Ombudsman better define the role
of the Ombudsman as the national preventive mechanism
Government improved access to its buildings for people with
disabilities
The Roma community face discrimination, especially in the field of
employment, health issues and housing
Some progress was made on (LGBTI) issues especially through
capacity-building activities for civil servants and police officers.
Freedom of expression and freedom
of the media
• Freedom of expression has been undermined by new cases of
•
•
•
violence against journalists and attacks on media property
A commission for monitoring the activities of the competent
authorities in the investigation of old and recent cases of threats
and violence against journalists was set up in December
Overall, violence against journalists remains a source of serious
concern
The lack of professional and ethical standards among some media
practitioners also remains a cause for concern
Economic criteria
• Montenegro’s macroeconomic stability recorded some
•
•
improvement and the economy recovered from the 2012 recession
Government’s third Pre-Accession Economic Programme (PEP),
covering the period 2014-2016, presents a broadly consistent,
albeit somewhat optimistic, medium-term macroeconomic and
fiscal framework based on the projection of a gradual acceleration
of growth from 3.6 % in 2014 to 3.8 % in 2016.
The number of new companies rose substantially in 2013 to 4146,
or 17 % more than the previous year. These figures must be
treated with caution, however, as some of these might be former
companies that have re-established themselves as a way of
escaping debt.
Economic criteria
• Uncertainties relating to the Montenegrin legal and judicial system
may in some cases entail risks for economic agents. Laws
sometimes contain ambiguous provisions and are therefore
difficult to implement.
Civil Society
• In July, the new Council for development of non-governmental
•
•
organisations was appointed by the government
Greater transparency is needed in the government’s procedures
for cooperation with and consultation of CSOs, especially in
legislative drafting, continuous cooperation between CSOs and
public administration bodies is not yet guaranteed.
A sustainable system of public funding for CSOs and an
appropriate institutional framework need to be further developed.
The current system of public funding has so far proved to be
inefficient, as acknowledged by the latest report from the State
Audit Institution.
State of play in the area of Education
• Chapter 26 Education and Culture – provisionally closed
• Montenegro's good general state of preparedness in the area of
Education and limited difficulties in terms of alignment
• EC recommended to Montenegro to continue strengthening the
quality of school and university education and to achieve higher
participation rates in the Union’s education programmes.
• Montenegro needs to continue to ensure adequate availability of
budgetary resources and to strengthen its administrative
capacities.
Education Sector
• Montenegro public funding for education is above 4% of GDP.
• Reflecting the fact that economic competitiveness is highly
dependent on the skills of the workforce, the Government has
chosen a targeted program of reforms in higher education.
• In July, 2013 Parliament adopted amendments to the Vocational
Education Act, the High School and the General Law on Education,
which is expected to further strengthen the reform process.
Education – Progress report 2014
• The challenge of skills mismatches between the skills available and
needs on the labour market that persists
• In 2013, 48 900 unemployed persons despite an offer of 37 869
job vacancies. Internal labour mobility remains a key issue.
• Montenegrins are reluctant to apply for seasonal jobs (which
account for some 70 % of the total offer of employment)
• Employers resort to recruiting workers from neighboring countries:
22 498 work permits for foreign workers were delivered to cover
employers’ needs.
IPA assistance to
Montenegro 2007-2013
→
Montenegro receives IPA
financial assistance since 2007
→
€235m allocated between 2007-2013
IPA allocation to Montenegro 2007-2013 (€mio)
YEAR
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
TOTAL
Transition
Assistance &
Institution
Building
27.5
28.1
29.8
29.8
29.8
16.3
5.0
166.5
Cross-border
Cooperation
3.9
4.5
4.7
3.7
4.3
4.6
4.7
30.3
8.0
14.7
22.8
2.8
2.8
5.6
3.2
7.3
10.5
34.9
34.5
235.7
Regional
Development
Human
Resources
Development
Rural
Development
Total
31.4
32.6
34.5
33.5
34.1
IPA II Financial Assistance
2014-2020
 Reinforced link between financial assistance and policy agenda
 Promotes policy dialogue and structural reforms, while empowering
national authorities
 Stronger ownership by the beneficiaries
 Core themes are governance and rule of law, and socio-economic
development.
 Contribution to the objectives of EU 2020 Agenda / SEE 2020
Strategy
 Indicative allocation of 270.5 million euro for the period 2014-2020
Financial & Technical Assistance
Strategic objectives for IPA 2014-2020 in Montenegro
• Sustained pre-accession assistance in two most strategic sectors:
•
•
•
Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights
Democracy and Governance
Ensuring stable economic growth / convergence towards EU
development :
Competitiveness and Innovation, Education, Employment
and
Social
policiesand
Transition
Assistance
Human Resources
Economic
potential
EU acquis:
Institution
Buildingand alignment with
Development
Agriculture
and Rural Development,
Environment,
Cross-Border Cooperation
Rural Development
Transport
Regional Development
Reconciliation and regional integration:
Territorial Cooperation and Regional cooperation (CBC)
IPA II indicative allocation for Montenegro (€mio)
DEMOCRACY AND RULE OF LAW
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018-20
Total
m€
18.8
15.8
12.8
13.3
38.5
99.2
Democracy and governance
29.1
17.8
46.9
Rule of law and fundamental rights
31.6
20.7
52.3
85.0
171.3
COMPETITIVENESS AND
GROWTH
20.7
19.8
24.7
26.3
%
Climate
Environment and climate action
18.8
18.7
37.5
80%
Transport
20.2
11.8
32.1
80%
Competitiveness and innovation
12.3
8.9
21.2
Education, employment and social
policies
15.3
12.8
28.1
Agriculture and rural development
24.7
27.7
52.4
118.5
270.5
TOTAL
39.5
35.6
37.5
39.6
10%
Montenegro 2020 vision
“In 2020 Montenegro has a competitive economy. It is a
learning society of innovators, ready to face global, regional
and domestic challenges. Its people have high employability.
They have the knowledge, skills and competencies for
personal and career development as well as social inclusion.”
“Vision for skills 2020”