The European Movement in Montenegro has recently realized a series of projects in the scope of its activities concerning facilitation of Montenegro’s accession to European Union.

The most important ongoing program is “Government for Europe”, organized in association and with the help of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. At the moment, governmental structures in Montenegro are preparing for fulfilling of the European Commission’s Questionnaire that is expected to be received in following months. In order to initiate and facilitate the process of preparation of the Government for this significant operation, the European Movement in Montenegro has decided to organize expert assistance and provide full trainings for the structures of the Secretariat for European Integration, cabinet of the Vice-president of the Government in charge for European integration, Commission of the Government for European Integration and other related Governmental structures and institutions.

For this purpose, the EM Montenegro organized a series of 4 seminars on methodology and technical aspects of the organization of the process of responding to questions from the EC Questionnaire for officials from these structures in the period from September 2008 until December 2008, and another series of seminars and trainings realized from January until March this year.

As we have decided that the best form of these preparatory activities would be through the transfer of know-how from the countries from the region and the European Union that have already passed this exercise of filing the EC Questionnaire, these seminars were realized together with experts from Macedonia and Croatia, who shared their experiences from this phase of accession.
     
The European Movement in Montenegro also organized and continues to organize similar programs for representatives of the Parliament of Montenegro. Seminars within the scope of the project “Parliament for Europe” are aimed at strengthening capacities of Parliament concerning issues of European integration, but also at emphasising the role of the Parliament in this process.
     
In March 2009, the European Movement in Montenegro in cooperation with the European Fund for Balkans organized a presentation of a new public opinion poll of Galup Balkan Monitor. This pool offers reviews of opinions and citizens’ perceptions in countries of Western Balkans, concerning issues related to process of accession to European Union. The presentation was followed by a public discussion with representatives of the Government, NGOs and journalists.
     
Finally, the European Movement in Montenegro is now starting to implement the project “Travelling to Europe 2009”. This project was successfully organized for the last two years, in 2007 and 2008, as a part of a wider regional program, with support of: Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD) through German Marshall Fund project, the German Embassy, the Robert Bosch Stiftung Foundation, the Foundation Open Society Institute – the Representative Office Montenegro and the British Embassy in Montenegro. So far, 50 students from universities in Montenegro had a chance to travel across Europe for a month, together with their companions from the region, and we hope to give this opportunity to even more students with the help of our partners.