PODGORICA – The eighth meeting of the Subcommittee for internal market and competition between Montenegro and the European Commission was held Thursday in Podgorica, EU Delegation to Montenegro stated.
The progress made in the area of competition, state aid, consumer protection, and health, as well as reforms in the banking, insurance, and other financial services was discussed at the meeting.
In his opening marks, Minister of European Affairs Aleksandar Andrija Pejovic recalled that since the beginning of the negotiation process Montenegro has made significant progress in the areas covered by this subcommittee, which is confirmed by the fact that negotiations in Chapter 4 Free movement of capital, 5 Public Procurement, 6 Commercial law, 7 Intellectual property law, 9 Financial Services, and 28 Consumer and health protection have been opened.
He pointed out that the Montenegrin institutions continue their work and further improvements in the above areas, through harmonisation with EU regulations and the achievement of European standards. In this context, Minister Pejovic particularly pointed out the work ahead on chapter 8 Competition, aimed at meeting the benchmarks for the opening of this chapter.
Maria Fernandez of the Montenegro Unit in the Directorate General of the European Commission for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations commended the progress Montenegro has achieved in the negotiations process in the chapters covered by this subcommittee. She expressed her expectation that Montenegro will soon fulfil the opening benchmarks in Chapter 8 Competition, in which way it would finalise the work on all opening benchmarks Montenegro has received
She recalled the importance of the acquis in this area, particularly in the competition area and urged the Montenegrin authorities to complete the set-up of an independent state aid authority in line with Montenegro obligations under the SAA.
Representatives of the European Commission stated that in the period between two subcommittee meetings Montenegro has achieved progress in the transposition of the EU acquis, and that focus in the coming period should be put on proper implementation.