On Wednesday 14 June, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and the Commissioner for Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, called on Montenegro’s political stakeholders to “swiftly reach a consensus required to advance Montenegro on its EU path, most notably in the area of Rule of Law”.
These statements come as the country held legislative elections on 11 June. On this occasion, the party of the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, Europe Now, edged out the other parties by a narrow margin.
In a joint statement, Mr Borrell and Mr Várhelyi welcomed the holding of “competitive” and “well-run” elections despite “the context of a protracted institutional and constitutional crisis”.
Based on the feedback from the mission led by the OSCE and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Mr Borrell and Mr Várhelyi believe, however, that Montenegro’s legal framework should “be comprehensively revised in order to address a number of gaps and inconsistencies” and that the country should step up the process of including women in Montenegrin politics, which “remains low and is compromised by insufficient state and public efforts”. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)