"One of the biggest problems is the dysfunction of the judicial branch of government because Montenegro lacks high-level corruption convictions. We have some convictions for organized crime, which was largely contributed to by the activities of the SDT, mainly thanks to Dritan Abazović, who, from his position in the government, enabled some things to be initiated when it comes to the SDT. Apart from the first-instance verdict in the case of Vesna Medenica, we have no high-level corruption convictions. The lack of promptness of the courts is one of the obstacles to closing Chapter 23, otherwise the functioning of the judicial branch of government, where efficiency and promptness are at an unsatisfactory level, where a large number of judges are missing, is a major problem for closing these two chapters 23 and 24, which are essentially the most important," Mikić said in the Pressing TV Podgorica show.
Commenting on the decision to establish a Working Group for drafting a new Treaty on the Accession of Montenegro to the EU, he recalled that Montenegro has temporarily closed 14 out of 33 chapters as of today and that it has a lot of work ahead of it by the end of the year.
"I am skeptical that we will manage to close all the chapters by the end of the year. I believe more that we will not than that we will, because there are 19 chapters left to be closed, some of which are blocked by our neighbors for political reasons. We would need to close two or three chapters per month in eight months to succeed by the end of the year. I am skeptical that we will succeed," said Mikić.
He added that the Parliament has a lot of work to do, along with the dynamics of the Government's work, which cannot keep up with the legislative chamber, and that the executive branch cannot turn it into a "flowing boiler" because some ministries or individuals are not doing their work on time.
