UNLOCKING THE SAFE – Montenegro and EU Funds During 12 Years of Negotiations

About publication

Author: Mila Kasalica

Publishing year: 2024


Joining the European Union is a story about funds. The EU accession agenda is a model filled with complex projects serving the public policies of developing countries and candidate countries benefiting from the funds, framed by diverse activities and segments which at every step, in every phase, every week are linked to realizations through monetary expressions and verifiable reporting.

We did not incorporate the experiences of refunding funds after strict audits into the necessary experiences, with the aim of being better with each subsequent project, at the level of each individual Montenegrin user of funds. This must be a story about gaining experiences from specific examples, which represent institutional and project mastery of hidden and important messages of the EU acquis that are not a regulatory framework unless they have a monetary expression in budget plans and timely realizations of fund releases and executions.


This publication was produced within the framework of the programme “CSOs in Montenegro – from basic services to policy shaping – M’BASE” implemented by the CCE in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), NGO Center for Protection and Research of Birds of Montenegro (CZIP), and NGO Politikon Network, in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Administration and the Ministry of European Affairs of the Government of Montenegro. The project is funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Ministry of Public Administration.