European Forum

Montenegro reforms election law crucial for EU integration

Last Thursday September the 8th, an election law reform was passed in Montenegro. Deliberations over the law have been the prime battleground for a debate over the language that is being taught in schools, which has now ended in compromise. The election reform was one of the preconditions the EU had set the former Yugoslav country before opening up accession negotiations.

The passing of the election law reform was severely problematized by the introduction of language demands by the Serbian minority opposition. The opposition is needed for a two-thirds majority  vote in the Montenegrin parliament, but they refused to budge if Serbian would not become an official school language next to Montenegrin. The two languages are closely related to each other. After four years of heated debate the discussion gained a new twist when the results of the April census were published in late July, in which the majority of the people declared their ethnicity as Montenegrin, but the biggest language group turned out to be Serbian-speakers. The debate was finally settled when it was decided that Montenegrin-Serbian would become the official language to be taught in schools.
   
The Balkan country gained EU candidate status last December, but the European Commission set seven key priorities that needed to be met before accession talks can begin. Amongst them are improving the functioning of the state apparatus and battling organized crime and corruption. However, the key to obtaining a starting date for accession negotiations are the election reforms that have been passed last Thursday. EU Commissioner for enlargement Stefan Fuele said in a reaction that he is "positive that with the determination of its people, Montenegro will continue to make steady progress towards the European Union." Prime Minister Igor Luksic expressed his hope that “we have met the first condition. . . towards getting a date for European Union accession talks.”

Sources: BalkanInsight1; BalkanInsight2; DailyNewsMontenegro; EUbusiness; EurasiaReview; SETimes1; SETimes2; Image: Flickr