On Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia informed Montenegro in a note addressed to the Embassy of Montenegro in Zagreb that the Republic of Croatia declared Andrija Mandić, President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Milan Knežević, Member of the Parliament of Montenegro, and Aleksa Bečić, Vice President Government of Montenegro, undesirable in Croatia.
As stated, they were declared undesirable “due to systematic actions to undermine good-neighborly relations with Croatia and continuous abuse of the Republic of Croatia for internal political purposes”.
“The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs regrets that the majority in the Parliament of Montenegro decided to ignore continuous calls from the Republic of Croatia not to make moves that could negatively affect our bilateral relations and Montenegro’s European path. In this context, the actions of the aforementioned political officials stands out, and their behavior cannot be considered benevolent and good-neighborly in relation to the Republic of Croatia, nor is it in line with the declared goal of Montenegro’s membership in the European Union,” the Croatian ministry announced on Thursday on its website.
The press release also states that good neighborly relations are one of the key elements of the enlargement process as well as the stabilization and association process, and one of the key criteria for evaluating progress in Montenegro’s accession process, in accordance with the European Union’s Negotiating Framework for Montenegro.
“Croatia supports European Montenegro, supports the process of accession to the European Union and advocated for progress on Montenegro’s European path. The Republic of Croatia expects that Montenegro will behave in accordance with European values and in the European spirit and that it will focus its efforts on further fulfilling the conditions and benchmarks in the accession process”, conclude from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, Hina writes.
