Vujanovic: Regional cooperation is not a substitute for EU membership
Montenegro is ready for any cooperation within the Western Balkans, but it is necessary to eliminate delusion that regional cooperation is a substitute for EU membership, said Montenegrin president Filip Vujanovic.
Vujanovic expressed his satisfaction with the Summit of the South-East European Cooperation Process held on Saturday. It marked the end of Croatia’s and the beginning of Slovenia’s presidency, as well as the Dubrovnik Forum, during which issues related to the Mediterranean and the Adriatic area were discussed.
As he said, the forum was an opportunity to repeat Montenegro’s readiness for cooperation in the South-East European Cooperation Process as an important regional initiative.
After the Dubrovnik Forum, Vujanovic said that Montenegro was ready for any cooperation within the region and for improving that cooperation, particularly in terms of stronger trade in the Western Balkans, but without the transfer of the instruments of sovereign economic policy management.
He said that it is necessary to eliminate obvious delusions that the area of regional cooperation in the Western Balkans is a substitute for EU membership.
He said that regional economic area of the Western Balkans is not a way to slow down the process of EU accession.
“It is a way to show through our cooperation the ability to be in the EU as soon as possible and that this economic area does not jeopardise EU’s individual approach or replace it with a group approach,” he added.
Source: CDM
Vujanovic: Regional cooperation is not a substitute for EU membership
