March 10 (SeeNews) - Corruption remains a serious concern regarding Montenegro's progress towards EU accession, the European Parliament (EP) said in a resolution on Thursday.
The fields of public procurement, healthcare, education, spatial planning, privatisation and the construction sector were particularly outlined.
The MEPs called on Montenegro "to make combating corruption one of its priorities" and welcomed the establishment of the anti-corruption agency to this end.
The country's steady progress in EU accession negotiations was acknowledged, as Montenegro's rapporteur Charles Tannock assessed that it continues to be the good news story of the Western Balkans.
He added that "2016 is a very important year for Montenegro. In the year of its tenth anniversary since independence, the country is going to the polls in parliamentary elections and is in the process of crucial negotiations regarding its potential accession to NATO."
The Central European Aluminum Company (CEAC), a Cyprus-based major shareholder and one of the largest creditors of Montenegro’s Kombinat Aluminijuma Podgorica (KAP), welcomed EP's resolution on Montenegro in a separate statement.
The company underlines that the resolution explicitly expresses the parliament’s concern over “the delay in the resolution of the KAP bankruptcy proceedings as it is in breach of the country's obligations under the SAA” and calls on the government of Montenegro to “reach a sustainable and negotiated solution for KAP bankruptcy proceedings in compliance with state aid rules, the SAA and based on transparency and the rule of law”.
CEAC reminds that it acquired a controlling stake in the KAP aluminium smelter and a nearby bauxite mine in Montenegro in 2005. After investing over 200 million euro in modernisation of the smelter, CEAC was stripped off its assets and removed from the management of KAP by the government of Montenegro. CEAC has initiated international arbitration proceedings against Montenegro's government for breach of the KAP settlement agreement, and the foreign investments protection agreement between Cyprus and Montenegro.