On the 14 November 2012 the inaugural meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) between the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and Montenegrin local authorities took place in Brussels. It comes at a very timely moment. A few months after the official opening of the accession negotiations and one month after the European Commission presented its strategy paper for the enlargement and the progress report on your country, the formal setting up of the JCC comes to complement the other bilateral structures within the framework of the Stabilisation and Association Process aiming to pave the way to Montenegro’s gradual full integration into the European family.
Stanisław Szwabski (PL/EA), Chairman of Gdynia City Council and co-chair of the JCC, was delighted to open the first meeting and underlined the objective underlying the setting up of the new body: "The work of the Joint Consultative Committee will aim to follow the accession negotiations of Montenegro. The JCC can strive to provide concrete input in this process in terms of recommendations or reports. The JCC, which gathers CoR members and local representatives from Montenegro, aims to ensure that Montenegrin local authorities are involved in the enlargement process, in particular as regards the proper implementation of the EU acquis at local level.
Mr Joost Korte, Deputy Director-General DG Enlargement at the European Commission, Mr Ivan Lekovic, the Ambassador of Montenegro to the EU, MEP Mr Eduard Kukan also participated in the meeting. More information is available on: www.cor.europa.eu 