Montenegro strikes to settle Croatia disputes threatening its EU membership bid

Montenegro has taken steps to resolve a sequence of disputes with neighbouring Croatia that threaten to derail its ambition of turning into the EU’s twenty eighth member by 2028.

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Last week, Zagreb circulated an eight-point checklist of grievances to different EU international locations, setting out the problems it desires resolved earlier than Montenegro can be part of the bloc. Most stem from the Balkan wars of the Nineties.

“There are points which we have now signalled to our Montenegrin neighbours for years […] In the final two years, there was no progress in any way,” Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković mentioned on the margins of the European Council on Thursday, including that his nation has been “extraordinarily constructive” within the accession talks with Montenegro.

Just final week, nevertheless, Montenegro’s parliament handed laws defending historic websites, a transfer supposed to handle Croatia’s demand {that a} memorial plaque commemorating Croatian victims of the Morinj detention camp, operated by the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), stay untouched.

Another grievance issues a municipal swimming pool in Kotor, which the native meeting named after Zoran Gopčević, a water polo participant who allegedly served as a guard shift commander at Morinj.

Montenegro has now handed a second regulation prohibiting sports activities amenities from being named after individuals who died lower than 40 years in the past. As the regulation applies retroactively, it might require the removing of Gopčević’s identify from the pool. He died in 2000.

More contentious is Zagreb’s request that Montenegro assist find the stays of 14 victims of the wars that unfold throughout the Balkans as the previous Yugoslavia collapsed. The Croatian nationals didn’t die on Montenegrin territory, and the archive that may maintain the data is in Belgrade, now the capital of Serbia.

Both Montenegro and Croatia have requested Serbia for entry to the archive. Zagreb, nevertheless, desires info that may be obtained with out it, as there are conflicting interpretations of the place the victims had been taken and the place they could be discovered.

Croatia can be looking for compensation for Croatian households unlawfully disadvantaged of their property. The two international locations have agreed on the quantity, however negotiations proceed over the wording of the settlement.

For Zagreb, Montenegro’s latest strikes are a welcome begin, however the measures should be absolutely carried out earlier than the disputes might be thought of settled. Croatia desires to keep away from any excellent points when Montenegro’s accession treaty comes up for ratification.

The Croatian authorities additionally faces home strain to reveal that it’s defending nationwide pursuits over the unresolved legacy of the Yugoslav wars, or threat criticism from opposition events.

That sensitivity was evident eventually week’s EU summit, when Croatia insisted on eradicating a reference from the summit conclusions to plans to provisionally shut all of Montenegro’s accession negotiating chapters by the top of this yr.

Another unresolved situation is the border between the 2 international locations, certainly one of a number of territorial disputes inherited from the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Croatia desires Montenegro to desert the potential for arbitration over their land border, the place solely round 200 metres stay disputed, and focus as a substitute on resolving their maritime boundary.

The border dispute shouldn’t be anticipated to dam enlargement. Croatia itself nonetheless has an open dispute with Slovenia, which didn’t cease it becoming a member of the bloc in 2013.

According to at least one EU diplomat, Croatia has all the time stored bilateral disputes on a separate observe, avoiding blocking progress on the technical stage and linking the problems to particular negotiating chapters.

Montenegro, in the meantime, has stored a low profile, working discreetly in direction of an answer by way of bilateral dialogue, the diplomat mentioned. However, the diplomat added that there may have been stronger condemnation throughout the political spectrum of parliament speaker Andrija Mandić’s condolences to the son of struggle felony Ratko Mladić.

Germany has additionally stepped into the dispute, pressing Croatia to achieve a swift settlement reasonably than jeopardise Montenegro’s accession.

Berlin fears that permitting bilateral grievances to carry up the method may have wider repercussions for different international locations looking for EU membership.

“Montenegro has fulfilled all the necessities. There are conferences to attract up the ultimate treaty. There are nonetheless a number of smaller bilateral points, which have additionally been offered by Mr Plenković, however all of them might be solved,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz mentioned on the press convention after the European Council.