 I'll try to give a wider framework over where we stand and how the country actually got into a situation to really start accession negotiations and And of course how the how we envisage to continue in the next years as you said they Some some words on on the country itself, you know that it's a country which has been independent for the last only six years six and a half years so from 2006 on and And by the country with a rich history and a history of statehood which reached until 1918 when we became a part of a bigger country which was called the then Yugoslavia so in 2006 when you compare the very stand now and then You can see that a very different kind of situation in 2006 is a country which was together with Serbia was not the part of any And it's a serious integration effort none with the know with the neither with the with NATO nor with the EU Now six years after we are negotiating for the membership with you and we are seriously looking at the next NATO summit in 2014 to get an invitation to join the alliance alliance So as you can see when you compare with the most of the countries that Came about after the fall of the Berlin wall the Montenegro in accession and integration has been one If not one of the fastest, but the fastest one of course the 90s and what happened during the Sanctions period and the civil wars that raged around us has had a great impact and the the the years lost in the 90s have also are now having a kind of Impact on how the country should actually work And that is that I mean much harder and invest much more effort in trying to really Line itself with the European a key and reach the necessary level for the membership It's a country of six hundred six hundred and twenty thousand people so it's one of the it's the smallest one of the Yugoslav Republics But the country has been faced with the I would say a very stable political climate. We have never had a kind of a political instability which is maybe More common to some of the other Balkan states and the economic Situation is has been quite improving in the last years after the crisis in which hit the region Maybe later than the rest of Europe in 2009 so we have had the growth of Two and three and point five percent which puts us in the among the ten countries in Europe which had Sort of growth in the last years. We hope that tourism, which is the basic branch of our economy along with energy Will continue to grow and to develop in order really to replace the old obsolete socialist industry of aluminum and steel And also to create a good environment in the country for raising the living standards Of course the unemployment is Quite it's almost as the eurozone average. It's around felt percent But also there is the fact that Montenegro imports lots of labor from the region during summer months and decision seasonal kind of Of a migration is very common for us. I will now try to give you a sort of Picture on how actually and what we have with the European Union and how we negotiate and what kind of relationship the union has with my country and maybe it's the best thing to start with the The only contractual relationship that the country has with you which is the stabilization association agreement You know that the Europe agreements from the 90s have been replaced with the so-called essay is Where the stability stabilization was introduced in order really to show that there is a quite a difference with the Western Balkans You first stabilize and then you associate yourself The essay was signed in 2007 you see immediately after we became independent and then we Entered into force in May 2010. We have been implementing it smoothly, which is a good thing because it really Helps the country in all its efforts in aligning with specific chapters Before that Montenegro Some 10 years ago decided really to become a very liberal economy and that helped with the essay because At the time when we realized that we are such a small economy that you cannot protect it from From the influences, I mean or the markets outside of the country Was I think a good one because it created the good basis for the essay and then also to prepare us for the Info for the impact of the common market once we join these are also the bodies that the Have been set up as you can see the EU is Very keen on having lots of bodies or cooperation You see there's the stabilization association castle, which is the highest you mentioned it in your introductory marks Where we actually sum up all the events within this contractual relationship the essay committees The subcommittees and also the parliamentary dimension of a cooperation along with two joint consultative committees This is actually a kind of a tool which exists for every country apart from Kosovo Koso is now entering this phase of a feasibility study to get the first essay a and In these bodies and this kind of a contractual relation will stay until the end until we join Croatia has had the meetings of the bodies until the very last date And it is actually in place until it joins This really helps a lot in our cooperation because it gives a good platform for Communication and experience sharing between our administration and the EU and now we try To streamline the negotiation I would say the negotiation Activities within the subcommittees and the committees meeting so not duplicate efforts But actually to have the these kind of bodies the place where we discuss also the a key within various chapters If something on the Instrument from pre accession assistance You know that Ipa is a tool of the European Union which helps the countries the candid countries in there And the spire and aspiring countries in their European integration in the previous period they had some tooth 135 million which is subdivided into some 30 to 35 million per year Which is not such a huge amount of money, but it really helps when it comes to specific projects The next Ipa to which is now being launched will have the first Launching meeting this week in on Friday in Brussels will be probably the same amount of money for Montenegro Which is not too much. You know Turkey gets one billion per year. We get 35 million So it's a huge response, but per capita Montenegro is the it gets most. I mean the highest amount of eight pretty These components that have been marking the Ipa one are now going to be completely changed We'll get into something more of a sectoral assistance. So you can forget all of this and We'll all have to get the custom to completely new way of dealing with the assistance But just a sort of an idea on how we actually manage to be the funds that we get There's another thing which is the progress reports, you know that the commission issues each year in October in autumn a kind of a report where it sums up the progress of a country last year's one was and it's basically broken down into a Political criteria economic criteria and then the impact of the various chapters 35 chapters This is a good guideline and a good good blueprint for every activity. And basically the progress reports Tell a country. It's it's like you have been given each year a kind of analysis of yourself Which is very helpful because the Commission is very keen on developing a good Analytical paper on where the country stands This year we have actually decided to use this progress report to extract All the deficiencies that have been seen in the report and the pointed out and to create a very efficient action plan which could be used for Dealing with the other deficiencies I would say that this has been proven to be a really good example some other countries in the region also have this and for example While when the Commission feels that you haven't been improving your Capacities in the cartel area in the public procurement You extract this deficiency and then you develop specific activities that the country's the country will be doing in the next year in order to remedy the situation. So Along with the negotiations with the SAA with IPA this is another tool as you can see there are lots of parallel activities That the country now can that country has to go through in its relationship with the with Brussels For the next 2013 progress report As I told you there is a kind of action plan that we have Already adopted and if and it's available on our website On how we shall be doing things in the next year and this this year, sorry Opening of negotiations it happened on the 26th of 29th of June last year But there was another decision on the December council in 2010 which actually called for a kind of creation of negotiating structures and already Start of work on chapters 23 24 these two chapters that have become very famous rule of law chapters or 23 is a justice And the fundamental rights judicial and fundamental rights and 24 is justice libertarian security There have been some talks on and there is a funny thing now ongoing with our negotiations. There is another chapter called the TNT trans-european networks, which is You can't even call it a specific chapter and there have been lots of discussion whether to abolish this chapter and to have 34 chapters, but since this chapter would completely create another kind of division on Enumeration of chapters and 23 would become 22 and 24 would become 23 they decided to actually in the commission to retain the chapter and not to lose the already known or public image of these two rule of law chapters, but What happened in after December 2011 was that we actually started negotiating on these two chapters rule of law and Creating structures without the the real official opening of accession of institutions So see this is the new approach which really opens up the way for countries to deal with the political criteria with the rule of law Immediately rather than waiting until the end of the accession negotiations and then not being able to produce the main thing which is currently the track record if you remember the previous enlargements and In your country also, I mean the the very nature of negotiations is alignment with the a key now there's the The demand from Brussels is not just to align yourself But also to show Credible results and credible data on whether the system is functioning And that's exactly what the new approach is a very elaborate way of how you actually present The way you deal with asylum or let's say the Schengen criteria or the The reform of the judiciary, so it's not Just Enough to say we have completely aligned our legislation our constitution with the needs on the independent and autonomous judiciary but we need actually to show that the Judges that are appointed actually pass through a very transparent and very elaborate kind of testing and And that the the actual the list made are The lists of the judges that pass when they are appointed or promoted are First transparent and then that you actually have the first on the list passing to become a judge So this is really something quite different than in the previous enlargements But the countries the candidates were not asked to produce these kind of track record Not to talk about the corruption cases or organized crime cases when we have to also to present all kinds of tables And what's happening with the case on this and that and this is this has created a kind of a completely different way of Communicating the progress of the country towards Brussels Maybe we can come back to these rule of old chapters or later on in the discussions And The negotiations itself so we created we frank the model according to the chronic Experience because the crots are the latest in their accession negotiations and also the country which Emerged from the ex-Yugoslav legal system which helps So we really try to actually use the best examples from the latest Enlargements and also talked a lot with the Icelandic I also talked to the Turkish negotiator a lot But their system is completely different than that the way how they negotiate is also a bit different in time and structure and we created these six bodies the the College basically the highest body. This is the prime minister the vice prime ministers and it's a political body We'll have a meeting next Monday, which actually goes through all the sensitive issues if you could say so For example, the euro that we unilaterally use now when we open the open the economic and monetary union chapter Obviously the euro has become an issue. I mean what to do with the country which has a euro as its own currency But it's not a member of the user and it's not member of the EU So the college discusses these kind of the top issues and how we shall proceed with the preparation on of the of the chapter in the negotiating position in chapter 17 Then of course the state delegation which opens up and closes the chapters the negotiating group Which I chaired it's basically me and there's some 10 negotiators and I'll show you the Who they are and who actually coordinate 35 chapters and then the working groups This is these are two supporting bodies, but the working groups are the core element. They're the basic structure and So as you can see the working groups actually do the job They they possess the knowledge they go to Brussels. They discuss the chapters and they they actually are constituent of People who are experts. We have also applied completely new thing to the to this kind of structure because previously the largements had the public administration In these kind of bodies all of them and maybe some Meaning the trade unions and academia we have widened the scope and now we include the NGO So any NGO which wants to contribute and to be the part of the structure can apply Of course, there is a kind of procedure. So now we have a kind of structure where 20% of people come from the civil society which for a small country is a greater system because Obviously nobody Montenegro thinks that only the public administration can or should do the job alone And that's has become a sort of a characteristic of our Montenegro way of obscenity because once you get not just the NGO working or let's say Human rights, but also when you get the milk Federation Representative or me produces a Federation or a egg produces a Federation Representative you get a couple in we discuss it within the groups and then it becomes a joint Solution or a joint proposal and not something that has been Let's say a made from top down from the government and then widely debated within the public There is also the Parliamentary Committee for Interaction newly set up in this call the government of the parliament and this should Actually go through all the documents that we prepare in these structures and also give us a political plot apart from the government, of course the government is the last or the top layer of the decision-making Here is how it looks as you can see it's combination of Different people, but these these are the negotiators as you can see if you can read This lady for example coordinates five chapters This lady coordinates to 23 24 the famous one. So these are actually the people who Constituted a sort of a mini government cabinet which Discusses everything and helps me in my work in order to coordinate things We have appointed now five people until now Because we have applied a consecutive approach to create the group of the group not immediately have 35 group or 33 groups And then to to make mistakes I rather wanted to have a sort of a very thorough approach So once we get the invitation to do the screening and the agenda with all the a key that it's going to be discussed We appoint people and and prepare negotiations and these are the groups the We now have 19 groups for 19 chapters as you can see women are some 70% of leadership here so it's also good to have a Kind of a gender this balance in this case I would say that these these people are actually Expressing their own on their own behalf because they are the ones who Coordinate the work of the group this lady has finished the job because Chapter 25 has been provisionally closed so she can rest But the rest and especially those people who work on 23 24 will have Years of work ahead of them because chapters 20 G and 24 shall stay open until the last Let's say chapters are closed among the they should be closed among the last That's the new approach. So they will have Several years of work all the rest of course will work. I will have a kind of a work spend depending on how The how actually the country is whether the country is ready for alignment and how long it needs to align And here is maybe that for me the most Interesting slide these these are the Is that the chapters and the overview where we stand you see there are 35 chapters it has grown It's not anymore 30 or 31 The of course we will not create groups for 35 35 35 because these two chapters are Discussed in the last year of accession but 33 groups will be made and As you can see chapter 25 Was closed in December or we have a I could say we are very much in line with the science and research It's also one of the chapter with a very soft a key which is not very problematic to Align with but the good thing is that the Montenegro has created sometime ago science ministry which has improved very much the budgeting for science and also the approach to science itself in building technological parks and also Seeing the importance of science as a basic thing for and research for a basic thing for the economy and also the education These two are the chapters that we have received the screening reports So the screen has been completely finalized. It's 23 24 now We were connection plans here a specific action plans which are the opening benchmarks to create a kind of 13 action plans within these two and as you can see these are the Chapters now because the statistics here is mainly about the screenings is what the Screening has been finished and whatnot. You see here that the There are two kinds of screening explain it or in bilateral previously that was multilateral bilateral because Previously you had more countries going to a screening when you were presented with the a key and obvious It was multilateral and bilateral one was an island or a Denmark went and actually presented their own legislation now Multilateral is called explanatory and bilateral is also explanatory, but they still call it the bilateral all the both are Bilateral in their nature We'll finish all of these screenings for 33 chapters until July and then have a really good Idea on where we stand when it comes to specific chapters This will open up the way of creating the NPA the national program of accession every country had it It's a very elaborate How you shall how we shall align with the with the akin the next five years So basically as you can see the Soon with the Irish presidency in place now we hope that we should be Opening chapter 26 education and culture, which is another easy soft key chapter and work on some other chapters like chapter 20 enterprise industrial policy and Maybe some other chapter to be open during the Irish Termin office, so I Believe that the Some of the chapters and probably you could ask about that afterwards Are quite tricky like the competition policy mainly because of the state aid It has been a problem for each country in their accession the regional policy and coordination of structural element instrument. This is one that Actually prepares you for using funds. So every country is having a hard time Preparing for what becomes a huge change once you Switch from as I told you 35 million to some maybe 400 million that is available to a country once it joins Croatia had some 140 million per year in Epa now it can you will have to have 14 billion for the next 17 years available so you can see the difference in in the amount of money that the country can use after it joins and then of course the hard ones would be the Where is the environment? Here it is environment and climate change. It's very costly Actually to align completely with the demands of the EU and of course the some other chapters which is the Tricky chapter on economic monitor unit Monitor policy because of the euro this one will be very costly food safety veterinary and phyto because the chapter is Also calls for also laboratories and border crossings to be equipped and everything And I would say that the every culture real development will also help the country Position itself and what we are going to produce in the common market in the common agricultural policy whether it is the Mediterranean kind of foods or it's olive oil or it's a really not investing in those kind of agricultural Production that you do not need and maybe Some some problems with the fisheries not because of the policies we don't have mackerel and no migration in strategic Italians have caught everything up but the Because the policy I would say that we have a lack of administrative capacities to deal with the fisheries area. It's It's it's kind of a new thing for us. We have a very small fishing fleet So we'll have to develop a good group of people or good administrations to deal with the alignment in this And this is the last slide. It's How to show you how actually we dealt with the negotiations in the last year until now So you could as you can see I've been I was appointed on In December 2011 and then after year we managed to open and close the first one chapter on the So basically this has been a really good thing to open and close the first chapter no matter that these Small one and the very easy one. We have managed to quote up with Turkey now after lots of years of their negotiations and But it it was very it was crucial for us to see how actually you work on a chapter because it's not easy to Get into the intricate fabric of dealing with the with Brussels. It's a very complex and very Interesting way of communicating and in the drafting negotiating positions and so on also, we have really had a good cooperation with the With the Icelandic they've been really helpful We have a constant change of information no matter that they are completely different in the substance of their negotiations But there are lots of things that we can relate to and of course with the with the countries of the region with Croatia We have we are now developing a really good program of Expertise sharing and where the crowd experts will through their center of excellence help us in in Showing maybe the most important thing is what not to do Sometimes that's more important in this huge Jungle of things that you have to do in the European integration the Slovians have been really Present in the country the Slovaks. I would say that mostly the new member states have been more sensitive Towards helping the candidate countries maybe because of their fresh Experience on the other hand now we have been talking a lot with the Irish government to sign a memorandum on cooperation in the European integration area where the Irish experts could help us especially in those areas that the Irish are good as for example as the funds and also in some other areas And I would say that The last year has been very dynamic But maybe the best message that I brought from all my visits to the European capitals is the that the European Integration is really an amazing way of actually getting countries together. They have never had the kind of a bilateral Cooperation or communication at this level So it's really a good platform for developing bilateral relations and also Seeing how actually people can meet not just the public administration But really exchanging people and and getting to know each other and that's the point of the whole story of Integration not just to align ourselves and do to use the standards of the European But we to become again a part of the of the common Europe the joint of unified Europe where we feel that we belong and not anymore to the I would say Troubles of the 90s and the Cold War years of the previous decades So I would stop now and maybe