At today’s 40th Meeting, members of the Committee on European Integration have considered the Information Paper on 2019 EU support programmes to Montenegro.

Key aspects of the Information Paper were presented to the Committee members by Mr Aleksandar Drljević, Chief Negotiator for Montenegro’s Accession to EU, and Mr Bojan Vujović, Advisor to the Deputy Chief Negotiator - National IPA Coordinator, who talked about implementation of the remaining projects from the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance 2007-2013 (IPA I), and preparation and implementation of the projects encompassed by the financial perspective 2014-2020 (IPA II). Furthermore, the obtaining of the first information from the European Commission on the financial support to the EU for the period 2021-2027 (IPA III) has been confirmed, as well as the first drafts of the more detailed rules of the new financial perspective that the IPA beneficiary countries could expect within 2020.  

At the meeting, they also discussed EU’s financial aid to Montenegro in the amount of 53 million euros, which has been diverted from the current allocated funds within IPA II (2014-2020) to support the health care system and economy in order to repair the consequences of COVID-19 pandemic.

During the discussion that followed, the comments and questions of Committee members referred to more specific information about the spending of funds, implementation stages of certain projects, diverted EU funds in the context of facing the consequences of the pandemic and their future use, as well as the capacity and drain of human resources at the state and local levels. The Committee members were also interested in the manner and future criteria for allocation of funds within the new financial perspective IPA III (2021-2027).

Chairperson Slaven Radunović and Committee members also discussed the planned future activities of the Committee and he informed them about the key conclusions from the plenary session of COSAC which was organised via videoconference.