MONTEGRO: Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic says Montenegro hopes to sign key partnership deals with the EU and Nato this year, as it shifts from celebrating independence to pushing through vital reforms in its push for membership of the two blocs.
EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn visits the tiny Balkan state today, almost seven weeks after it won independence from Serbia in a referendum that deeply divided its 600,000 people.
Speaking to The Irish Times in the capital Podgorica, Mr Djukanovic said the EU would not be disappointed by Montenegro's drive for accession, now it no longer shared the burden of Belgrade's failure to deliver Ratko Mladic to the UN war crimes court.
"There is a feeling of relief here, now that we have solved a dilemma that has long been a problem for us," said Mr Djukanovic, who scrapped an alliance with Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic in the late 1990s.
"Over recent years we haven't made the progress that we should have, and the main problem was the non-cooperation of Serbia with The Hague tribunal," he said. "Another thing was the dysfunctional nature of the union of Serbia and Montenegro. But now we have taken charge of our future, and of our ambition to gain membership of the EU and Nato."
More than 55 per cent of people in Montenegro voted for independence, but the poll has raised tensions with Serbia at a time when ultra-nationalist allies of the late Mr Milosevic are putting great pressure on the weak Belgrade government.
"The Serb prime minister and his government didn't address the issue in a rational way, but in an emotional way," said Mr Djukanovic. "But we are strongly determined to build a relationship of friendship and openness with Serbia."
Brussels has told Montenegro that it will not enjoy a "fast track" to membership, but Mr Djukanovic (44) is optimistic. He hopes to clinch crucial preliminary deals with both organisations "before the end of the year": signing the so-called Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU, and joining Nato's Partnership for Peace Programme.
"Montenegro is a small state and can implement the necessary standards quicker than other states," he says. "We are stable, we already use the euro, have annual inflation of only 1.8 per cent, and a budget deficit of 1.9 per cent of GDP. We also have very low corporate tax at 9 per cent, and are preparing more tax policy measures to draw investors."
But in a country he is accused of running like a fiefdom, Mr Djukanovic may struggle to convince the world that no murky secrets lie hidden between these dark mountains and glittering Adriatic shores that seem primed for a tourism boom.
He was a protege of Mr Milosevic when appointed Montenegrin premier for the first time at the age of just 29, and only broke with him 1997, after the wars that shattered Yugoslavia.
He is also accused of doing very well out of the cigarette smuggling operations that Montenegro allowed to flourish as a way of raising cash in the mid-1990s, when Yugoslavia was under international sanctions.
Mr Djukanovic dismisses the "strategic alliance" with Mr Milosevic and the alleged shady dealings as means of survival in a tough neighbourhood.
"I am engaged in Balkan politics," he says. "And the rules of Balkan politics take no account of fair play."
