Why is IBAR important? IBAR is important due to various reasons, many of which have already been presented, so I will not repeat them. But the reason number one is that without IBAR a candidate country, according to the New Accession Methodology, cannot go any further.
We can think about it as a video game, if you wish. You cannot go to the next level before finishing the previous one! So, IBAR is necessary, but it is not sufficient. IBAR is definitely not the end of the game! It is actually a new beginning, but it opens the path to endless opportunities for speeding up the accession process and get closer to Montenegro’s accession.
Probably the most important thing about IBAR that was not sufficiently mentioned, and that is why I am bringing it up, is that this IBAR is the first one! It is the first for Montenegro, but it is also the first for the European Commission. This has never been done before! Because, on one side, a new requirement was introduced, a new methodology, but at the same time, Montenegro is the first candidate country that is going through this process.
Getting the IBAR was a phenomenal and unbelievable team work on all levels, vertically and horizontally, on the technical level, political level, and diplomatic level, where Montenegrin side, Delegation of the EU, all Montenegrin institutions, negotiation team and our excellent colleagues in the DG NEAR in Brussels and in the Council and COREPER, EU Ambassadors and now also the ministers in the Council, all worked together in an unprecedented show of unity, to reach this historic moment for Montenegro.
By Oana-Cristina Popa, Ambassador, Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro