15 February 2019 - At its latest session, the Government of Montenegro passed the Draft Law on the Ratification of the Protocol on the Accession of the Republic of North Macedonia to NATO and sent it to Parliament for adoption under the shortened procedure.
The rationale of the proposed law states that, by reaching a historic agreement with Greece on the new name in June 2018, the integration of the Republic of North Macedonia into NATO, after many years of stagnation, marked significant progress and at the NATO Summit in July 2018, Macedonia was invited to start accession talks with the Alliance. With the adoption of constitutional changes in the Parliament and the ratification of the Prespa Agreement by the Greek Parliament, the conditions for the signing of the Protocol on the Accession of the Republic of North Macedonia to NATO were created at the North Atlantic Council meeting (NAC) on 6 February 2019.
The discussion, where several members of the Cabinet took part, highlighted the efforts, visionary and courage in the process of stabilising the situation in Macedonia and the opening of the European and Euro-Atlantic perspective of the country, as well as the continuous support that Montenegro has provided at the meetings between the two prime ministers Duško Marković and Zoran Zaev, as well as on other occasions. Montenegro wants, the discussion stressed, to be among the first NATO members to ratify the Protocol.
Prime Minister Duško Marković noted that Montenegro is pleased to express the desire for the friendly country to end the membership negotiations as quickly as possible and become the 30th member of NATO.
"Montenegro reaffirms the support it has provided to Macedonia, which will become an additional stability factor in the region and its Euro-Atlantic perspective," the Prime Minister concluded.
On the occasion of its session, the Government of Montenegro also adopted the Decision on the calculated value for public sector employees for 2019. After discussion with representatives of trade unions of Montenegro, the calculated value of the coefficient, as well as in previous years, was determined in the amount of 90 euros.
