On 31 May, as part of the Enlargement day, the CoR/Montenegro Joint
Consultative Committee (JCC) met in Brussels under the chairmanship of Cllr.
Hughie McGrath (Tipperary Council, Ireland) and Aleksandar Bogdanović, Mayor of
Cetinje.
In the presence of the Ambassador of Montenegro to the EU, Mr Bojan Šarkić,
Cllr McGrath congratulated Montenegro for its imminent membership to NATO and
for all the progress made in the negotiations towards EU accession since the
last meeting.
The Ambassador Šarkić and participants called for a greater involvement of
LRAs in the reforms as more than two thirds of legislation have to be
implemented at the local level. They also welcomed the recent approval by the
Montenegrin Parliament of legislation that will allow local authorities to receive
financial help to pre-finance EU projects.
During the meeting, best practices of sustainable urban development projects
were also showcased. In this respect, Cllr McGrath recalled that sustainability
of towns very much depends on their capacity to link people and communities. We
see more and more town centres losing their identity and economic activities as
a result of the development of e-commerce. If we are to keep our towns
sustainable and alive, we will have to think about new and innovative
approaches to the regeneration of towns and cities.
The next meeting of the JCC will be held in the Montenegrin city of
Danilovgrad in the end of September upon the invitation of Mayor Branislav
Djuranović.