At the 37th meeting held today, the Committee members, in the presence of the Deputy Chief Negotiator, discussed Montenegro’s Programme of Accession to the European Union for the period 2020 -2022.

Presenting the envisaged commitment plan for the next period within the EU accession process, Deputy Chief Negotiator Mr Marko Mrdak said it was an umbrella document that monitors timely planning and adoption of laws and regulations, as well as strategic documents within 33 negotiation chapters, and includes the plan for strengthening administrative capacity in terms of job redeployment, reorganisation, but also job creation. In this regard, he informed the Committee members that the Program envisages the adoption of 491 regulations over the next three years, of which 97 laws, 278 secondary legislations and 116 strategic documents.

The members of the Committee assessed that the Accession Program was ambitious and expressed their expectations regarding the degree of alignment of the legislative and strategic framework. They were particularly interested in the compliance of the Program with the proposal of a new enlargement methodology of the European Commission and the administrative capacity needed for the quality fulfilment of all planned obligations, but there were also specific comments regarding the planned amendments to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.

At the Committee meeting, the members also discussed the conclusions and recommendations for the negotiating team and the Collegium which, inter alia, relate to initiatives for better content of reports submitted to the Committee for consideration, thematic plenary sittings and cooperation with experts in specific areas, all in order to operate as efficiently and dynamically as possible throughout the negotiation process.