Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-12-Speech-3-312"
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"en.20071212.29.3-312"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, there is much to admire about Montenegro. The landscape is admirable, as is the way in which the separation from Serbia was conducted, both Montenegro and Serbia having acted very responsibly. I must also express admiration for the country’s policy on minorities, as a result of which minorities, by and large, tend to feel at home in Montenegro. These and many other things certainly merit our admiration.
There are also dark sides, however, which cause me great concern and which other speakers have already mentioned. One of these is the activity of foreign investors, particularly those from Russia. I have nothing against Russian investment in Montenegro or any other country. The Montenegrins must beware, however, of an imbalance that would make them dependent on a single country – and I would say the same thing about dependence on any country, not just Russia. Some of these investments are already endangering Montenegro’s natural beauty spots and its picturesque landscapes.
What continues to make me particularly sad is the prevalence of corruption, to which some Members have already referred. We have many reports from media sources that can at least be trusted to try to report in a fairly balanced way. The cases of massive corruption in connection with cigarette smuggling and other cases we have been reading about are things we thought had been consigned to history. I ask the Commission to make these occurrences a priority. If corruption were the sole criterion, we ought not to consent to the Stabilisation and Association Agreement today or in the days to come. We shall consent to it, however – and I include the Socialist Group here – because we want to help the country with its reform process.
Needless to say, however, we expect the Commission and the country itself to make every effort to eliminate corruption, which – and this is the sad thing – extends into political circles. At least there have been widespread serious allegations of corruption on the part of politicians. Like Mr Kacin, I wish to highlight the fact that the case of the murder of Duško Jovanović has not yet been solved. I wonder whether it is a mere coincidence that he and his colleagues had written a great deal about organised crime. I hope that it is a coincidence and that there is no connection. I certainly wish that the Montenegrin authorities would solve this case soon and would do far more to fight corruption in their own country."@en1
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