President of Montenegro Jakov Milatovic has said that the new target date mentioned in the context of the EU enlargement, 2030, is a bit discouraging, in particular for the most advanced countries in that process.

Following the meeting with Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel, he said that stronger communication between Montenegrin authorities and the capitals of the EU member states was missing.

“So far we mostly had communication between Montenegro and the European Commission (EC), but the support we receive from the member states is an important link in the Montenegro’s EU accession process”, said Milatovic.
He added that this was exactly the goal of his visits, to strengthen the presence and communication between Montenegro and the Member States.

“The new target date which is being mentioned, 2030, is a bit discouraging, in particular for the most advanced countries in that process, primarily for Montenegro”, said Milatovic.

He reiterated that Montenegro’s EU accession can be a good sign to other Western Balkan and Eastern Europe countries that the enlargement process was still alive.

Bettel said that Milatovic shared the European values which were very important today and important to fight for.

He said that he had an opportunity to exchange the views with Milatovic on Montenegro’s European future and economic links between both countries.

Bettel said that there were no high-speed train procedures towards the membership and that it was the EC’s job to decide whether the job was finished or not.

“My goal was to listen to the President and to see if there are any possibilities to see how a “locked situation can be unlocked”. But it’s on the Commission to decide, it’s not on individual counties to fix new rules”, said Bettel.