“Montenegro, at a recent meeting of the Subcommittee on Trade, Industry, Customs and Taxes, received praise from the European Commission for the implementation of Montenegro’s Industrial Policy 2019 – 2023, which is an important segment of meeting the only final benchmark in Chapter 20 – Entrepreneurship and Industrial politics “, said the head of the Working Group for that chapter, Maja Jokanović, at the constitutive session of the Working Group held today.
Jokanović reminded that the European Commission also recognized the efforts in the implementation of measures to support companies to mitigate the consequences of the Covid pandemic19, which represents an additional contribution to the preservation of economic activities.
She informed the members of the Working Group about the forthcoming obligations towards the implementation of the Roadmap for fulfilling the final benchmark in Chapter 20, which refers to industrial policy. She also underlined the obligations in the field of entrepreneurship, small and medium enterprises and innovations, as well as the necessary alignment with the Directive on the fight against late payments.
“In order to successfully implement the established obligations defined by key strategic documents such as Industrial Policy, Smart Specialization Strategy and Economic Reform Program, more intensive coordination of all departments is needed, which will contribute to better interaction in the implementation of all policies and the recommendation of the EC at the meeting of the Subcommittee that affect the company’s competitiveness. “, said Jokanović.
She expressed the expectation that the upcoming EC Report will give a truthful overview of the situation and provide further recommendations for the continued successful application of policies in this chapter.
The Secretary of the Working Group, Andrijana Čanović, emphasized that, in accordance with the New Methodology of Expansion and Grouping of Negotiating Chapters into Clusters, stronger dynamics and intensity of the department’s work on the remaining activities from Montenegro’s EU Accession Program 2021-2023 are expected, and that in this part it is important to include the academic community, as well as municipalities, in order for all parties to make an passable contribution to the progress in the chapter. She also pointed out that Montenegro has a number of EU programs at its disposal through early integration measures, which should be used as extra value to the negotiation process.
The working group for Chapter 20 was formed by the Government Decision of July 30, 2021 and has 29 members.
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