Đukanović at the Globsec Forum: Emancipation in the EU is a significantly longer process than the negotiation process itself

AUTHOR: M.J.
Former President of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović, is participating in the 19th GLOBSEC Forum, which is being held in Prague.
In the panel on the Western Balkans at the crossroads between East and West, Đukanović is participating together with the former president of North Macedonia, Steve Pendarovski, the former president of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, as well as the editor of Radio Free Europe in Prague, Rikard Jozviak.
Đukanović was asked if he was optimistic about the announcement that Montenegro would become the 28th member of the EU. He said that the process of reforms and adaptation to EU policies, that is, emancipation in the EU, is a much longer process than the negotiation process itself, so he believes that it is not something that he can provide optimism.
There are still sharp conflicts between the two ideas - multi-ethnic democracy on the one hand and Balkan nationalism on the other, Đukanović believes. Balkan nationalists, he says, have always had such political ideas.
"In the 1990s, under the influence of those ideas, they tried to change borders and appropriate territories, and the narrative was directed towards the fact that homogenization brings stability," says Đukanović.
Such ideas are still present, he believes.
"They are sustained by foreign influence, and by that I mean above all Russian influence," Đukanović concludes.