Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-12-Speech-3-323"
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"en.20071212.29.3-323"2
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"Mr President, I wish to begin by thanking the Members for a very substantial and substantive debate and Mr Vernola for stimulating this debate.
Most Members rightly emphasised the absolute necessity of combating corruption and crime and ensuring that the rule of law is reinforced in Montenegro. I could not agree more: the rule of law is fundamentally important for all sectors of society, underpinning the functioning of the whole society and the economy. That is precisely why the Commission insists very much on judiciary reform early on in the pre-accession process in Montenegro, as well as in the other countries of the Western Balkans. This is one of the most important political criteria of accession, which should be considered first and foremost.
Mr Vernola and many other Members also highlighted the importance of ecology and the environment. The Commission is assisting this ancient kingdom to become the ecological republic in the garden of nations, as Mr Paleckis said, by strengthening the administrative capacity of Montenegro, which in turn makes the country better able to approximate its laws to ours, for instance in the field of waste management and water treatment.
However, this is also related to corruption and I want to quote from the progress report of the Commission. ‘There have been no improvements in activities to curb political corruption. ... Management of public assets raises serious concerns. There is considerable room for corruption, especially in the cases of construction and land-use planning, privatisation, concessions and public procurement.’ This is a very serious issue and that is why Montenegro needs to address corruption as one of its first priorities.
Let me also inform the honourable Members that the Commission intends to adopt a communication early next year – probably in March – in which we will take stock of developments since Thessaloniki, and Salzburg last year, and give pointers towards the future. One such issue will be visa liberalisation, mentioned by many of you, and rightly so. The Commission will initiate dialogue on roadmaps towards visa-free travel, which should help the countries of the Western Balkans to make progress to meet the requirements so their citizens will no longer need visas to travel to the European Union.
But, I want to underline that this is not, as such, within the competences of the Commission but in the hands of the national governments of the European Union, and the ministries and ministers of the interior are the key players here. Therefore let us join our forces and carry out effective lobbying of the ministers of the interior as well as of the countries concerned in the Western Balkans, because we have to be sure that all the security requirements, such as the issuing of documents and border controls, are in full order before we can move towards visa liberalisation.
Finally, I am very pleased to hear about the successful parliamentary cooperation which is taking place between the Parliament of Montenegro and the European Parliament. I know this is very important – it is part of true political integration – and this is helping to develop institutions in Montenegro in a most welcome way. I trust that we can work together towards reinforcing the democratic institutions and administrative capacity of Montenegro. I am very glad that we see eye to eye on the future development of Montenegro on its road towards the European Union."@en1
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