 I'm also happy to be here and thank you Lucinda for inviting us here to speak and to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Thessaloniki Agenda, the Thessaloniki Agreement and actually the start of what was the most important process for the Western Balkans in the last several decades. At that time I interrupted my work career and I was studying, I did my master in Athens, so I spent the year 2002 and 2003 in Greece while Alexandra was working on the Thessaloniki paper in the north of Greece, I was in Athens, following the news and following what the, and how the actual European Union is going to devise a sort of a mechanism for the Western Balkans. At that time, and I think I remember the Evorah meeting before that of the European Council, the very approach was tailored and us in the Western Balkans, we were just very keen to see how the Zagreb meeting and also the Thessaloniki meeting is going to give birth to sort of a new approach of the European Union towards what the, and how the Western Balkans should approach the European Union. Now, 10 years after the events, we could say that there are some mixed feelings on the progress. There are some mixed feelings on how the countries actually managed to use the opportunities. The Thessaloniki actually coloured or actually influenced most of our work careers of the people who worked in the European, who still work on the European integration agenda along with the Stabilisation Association process, Stabilisation Association agreements, also EPA, and all those words that became very important for everyday work of anyone who works actually on the European affairs. I'm also glad to be here to be actually talking to not just the Western Balkans countries but also the member states because as we could hear also how the Irish did their negotiations in what kind of time span and how many meetings, if I remember correctly, eight chapters, ten ministerial and 29 civil servants meetings. As the commissioner said, we already had some hundred meetings on chapters 23, 24 and not to tell you about the rest of the 33 chapters that we are going to work in the next months and years. I wanted to give you a sort of, so we actually, we fulfilled the Irish quotas. Now we have to start on our own on the different, actually, nature of the negotiating process of the different nature of integration and enlargement. As you know, a lot of things changed. The creation entry and the creation negotiating process was a sort of, I would say, the last modified enlargement approach that characterized the 90s and the years after 2000. I believe that Montenegro is the opening country or the first country opening the face of new negotiating waves and new enlargement approach to things. As you know, we talked a lot about the new approach and what the new approach brings and how it actually influences the rest of the chapters and actually the pace that the country makes. I would say that the very substance of the negotiations of the integration has changed in the sense that now many things, the focus actually turned to many things that were not so important in the previous enlargements. Now we talk more about the substance, we talk more about the practical elements, we talk more about the delivery. I believe that the delivery has become the word of the important for anyone working on the European agenda in the candidate countries or potential candidates, meaning that I can push forward for the through my negotiating structure back home in Montenegro to have the legislation amendments to adopt the laws and to have the legislative framework. But if the country cannot show to be able to deliver on the key issues such as the rule of law, on the economic performance, on the financial scrutiny and the financial discipline, then the very process will either stagnate or regress. And therefore the integration or the enlargement, depending on the point of view from which you look at the process, has become very much different. Now, a year and a half after Montenegro actually opened the negotiations with the so-called specific clause that we got through the December Council on opening actually talks on 2324 and then getting the green light opened the rest of the chapters. I can say that we again have a sort of a mixed feelings. In the previous year and a half I talked a lot with the Icelanders, for example, because we could, that was the only country that we could share our experience when it comes to specific negotiating techniques or when it comes to the issues such as what we should take care on when it comes to the screening or how you actually what you do after you do the screening or what actually to focus on and so on and so on. No matter how Iceland was far away and how different their agenda was when it comes to the really the problematic areas that they are negotiating in comparison to us. We talked to the Turks a lot when it comes to their positioning and how they see the process. We also went a lot to Zagreb. We got the chief negotiator from Croatia coming to Montenegro. I talked to him regularly in Brussels and we tried really to circle around and all the friends and all the possible partners within the negotiations to see how the things change and how to adapt to the new circumstances and how actually to be able to proceed in the process. Now 2013 this year has marked or has been marked by two big events. One is the Croat entry. The other one is possibly the opening of accession talks with Serbia. So these two countries, the biggest two countries of the region and to be frank, that are actually coloring the pace of the rest of the region and their success is key for the rest of the countries. I might have liked to be like Iceland and Ireland somewhere in the seas and not surrounded by the neighbors but that's not the case. Montenegro is a part of the region. It's heavily influenced by what's happening in Serbia and what's happening in Kosovo, what's happening in Bosnia and Croatia and therefore the Croatian entry in a month or so will have a huge symbolic impact. That would be the first time that the land border of the EU comes to the Montenegro land border. That would be the first time that one of the western Balkan countries, actually the real western Balkan country joins the European Union. And therefore we are planning a sort of a celebration from our side of the border on the 1st of July to congratulate Croatia on entering the European Union. You would agree that this, for those who know what happens in the area, that was a part of our land where the conflict came about in 1991. And I would say that this is clearly a kind of a show, a kind of a symbolic value for the region, showing that we are actually saluting the Croat entry and we look forward to joining them in the Union of the Ordinations of the European Union. Therefore the very situation in the region where we stand now is as many of the speakers said today is very different. You cannot in many occasions share your experience with the rest of the countries because unlike with the big bag enlargement we cannot go to Sarajevo, to Belgrade to tell them, OK, we are doing this, how did you do this and what should be focused in Chapter 13 or Chapter 15 on our European agenda. This will stay for some time like that, even when Serbia opens accession talks in some months they will have to go through the screening and finalize everything before they really start working on specific chapters. Now we work and we go through the new approach, we work on the rule of law chapters and we are the first one developing the sort of action plans that will be a very detailed, very elaborate steps, a kind of a stream of steps or actions that the country is going to take in the next five years when it comes to the rule of law area and to be the special focus on organized crime and corruption. And therefore it's not easy to be the first one doing things, it's not easy to be the first country where so much focus is or more so much spotlight is put on a country doing something which should also serve as a kind of a basis or as a kind of a model for the rest of the western Balkans countries once they start accession talks and use the model that we are building up now. And therefore we are in a kind of a flux, in a kind of a hectic dynamic on creating the action plans which already have some 500 pages in total of activities that will mark the country's progress when it comes to rule of law in the next years but also that will actually provide for a good monitoring mechanism that would show that the country in the negotiating phase, in the pre-accession phase can show that it has attained the standards that are needed for the entering the European Union without any burden of entering it without finishing the job or doing everything it could have done in the process of negotiations. The rest of the chapters has its own life as you know much or less the same as the previous enlargements but also the substance or the let's say focus has changed because now we look much more into the delivery it's not just about changing the transport legislation or looking into the country's strategic approach to let's say economy or the trans-European networks but it's also more about seeing what the country can contribute and how the country can behave once it becomes a member state. And therefore I believe that the enlargement package from last year December 2012 was a very crucial package because it talked for the first time or it talked very importantly about the need to get the member states together at the same table with the candidates and the potential candidates to discuss the European policy. So it's not just enough to have a sort of a negotiating agenda but also to get the candidates and potential candidates involved in the European policies because once we become the members of the European Union we would need to be ready for what the European policy strategic approach is and so on and so on. And therefore the Southeast European 2020 strategy is a kind of a key tool of getting the Southeast European or Western Balkans countries within the wider framework of Europe 2020 strategy and therefore the mechanisms and the tools that the European Union is using in building up on competitiveness or fighting unemployment is a kind of a thing that the also the Western Balkan countries have to be in and to understand even before they join or open accession talks because this is the way you do you actually have to do the things even before you join because now the process is taking a much longer time than it used to before and we need to actually start early in the phase also in thinking strategically visionary and also thinking about the position of your country or our countries have to take once we join the European Union. We have you know one of the favorite questions by the by the journalists or the media is when we are going to join when Montenegro is going to finish the process and the Croat chief negotiator taught me one of the first one of the first lessons actually he gave me in the year and a half ago was never to tell about the dates never to talk about the deadlines because that's the kind of a trap with which you never know when you're going to end up. You see now Croat have fought for a lots of transitional periods that already expired even before Croatia joined the European Union so your our ideas and our plans do not have to coincide immediately with what the plans of the European Union are when it comes to the integration on the enlargement or what the real situation on the ground is. Now when we finalize the screening until being a month that we finish the whole screening we'll have a much better picture of what the country stands and how to proceed in the next years to develop a very elaborate also plans on what to do in in each separate chapter and how the country can progress. This will be done according to also the experience that we have accumulated from other countries to see how the rest of the countries planned their legislation changes but also how the and and how the country's pace can catch up with what the the needs are. You know that we live in the crisis environment you know that this influence is very heavily the also the reform agendas and also the integration agendas of very country and therefore it's I believe that that nowadays the the countries within the enlargement process have very hard task first of all to combat the the crisis the economic crisis to combat with the growing feeling of the enlargement fatigue sorry and also with the feeling that the there is not not not so much focus of the western of the european union in the western Balkans there is not so much of the real involvement like it used to be five years ago ten years ago when really the western Balkans was so much in the focus of the of the european capitals and lots of people do not understand that it's because the the situation calmed down that in many countries really people turn to living and bettering their standards of living and and and doing the normal things rather than provoking instability or or security issues but these are all kind of questions and kind of indicators they have to be taken into account in order to be able to understand where the country and how the countries are going to progress in the next decade I would just end up with with a kind of a quote and a kind of an example why I feel that the integration process is really doing a miracle in the in the candidates and potential candidates you know in 1687 there was a big battle of the Venetian armada against the Ottomans fighting to get the the whole of the Montenegro coastline under the Venetian rule at that time the Venetian negotiator envoy in Montenegro was talking to the um let's say the spiritual leaders of the of the Montenegro's and and and and the bishop told him you know how Montenegro's are they're ready when it comes to bribe they're ready to jump into the sea and drown just to get it so you see the perception of being um easily bribed of corrupt and things that um actually are a sort of um um a kind of a stereotype stereotypical for the region still persists I would say that the only way how we can actually fight these perceptions and stereotypes is really to work together and to use the process to use the enlargement process and actually to change the countries and and and actually to be able to say after several years like we did with it or you did with Croatia to be able to say look the integration did the miracle it changed the country it helped it to become a EU member but also it changed it within and therefore um I believe that the uh current process the current state that Montenegro is and the rest of the countries will be when they start accession talks is something of a specific period in um in a lifetime of any country which is um a kind of thing that does not happen very often uh so we we want to use it we want to utilize it for the best of the citizens but also to show that uh we need to work together and also to um actually show that the enlargement policy as it has been mentioned many times is one of the most successful policies of the EU thank you thank you