At a meeting in Brussels on the 01st June Cllr Hughie McGrath, Tipperary County Council and Mayor Aleksandar Bogdanović, Mayor of Cetinje co-chaired a meeting which has as its aim preparing Montenegro's local authorities for accession to the European Union.

His Excellency Ivan Leković, Ambassador of the Montenegro, Mission of Montenegro to the EU gave an overview of negotiations with the European Union and the meeting.  The meeting dealt with the subjects of 'Inter-Regional and cross border cooperation and EGCT's' and 'Economic governance and economic development at a local level'. 
Cllr McGrath said that"' There is clear recognition that Montenegro has made substantial progress but there is some more to do in particular with establishing a track record in implementing the different changes made."

Discussions also cantered around the increase of Local authorities in the discussion and decision making process, as within the EU most of the EU legislation is usually implemented by local and regional authorities.    The meeting discussed some practical examples of how to increase this participation. The JCC discussed a comprehensive report on the scope for interregional and cross border cooperation, and we look forward to taking this report forward.

On economic governance members discussed the essential question linked to pre financing and co-financing of the local authorities projects. Municipalities have limited own financial capacities and access to credit and Members called for establishment of an instrument to support sub-national authorities in EU co-funded projects.