In an interview with the MINA agency, Ćulafić said that all obligations for the temporary closure of that chapter will be completed by June, while a formal decision will follow by the end of the year at the latest.
Ćulafić said that they met the March 15th deadline for submitting the normative and strategic framework, and that the EC currently has eight laws, four or five strategies, and more than 95 by-laws.
He assessed that the submitted documentation of several thousand pages represents proof of the seriousness of the Montenegrin administration's work on one of the most complex negotiation chapters.
Ćulafić explained that the March 15th deadline was the final one in a series that changed — from the original end of 2026 to June, and finally the EC set March 15th as the mandatory date for submitting complete documentation.
"We planned several months in advance, taking into account national regulations and procedural steps that must be followed, but also the need to leave enough time for the European Commission and member states to communicate with each other and make a decision on closing the chapter," Ćulafić explained.
He emphasized that he would now wait for the EC's response to the submitted documentation.
"The sooner the comments arrive, the faster we will communicate and have the opportunity to adopt laws in the Parliament, strategies in the Government, as well as bylaws when the time comes," said Ćulafić, adding that he believes in the quality of the prepared documents.
He stated that he expects the state to fulfill all obligations from the roadmap for closing the chapter by June.
"The deadline that we consider to be the ultimate is December of this year for making a decision on the temporary closure of Chapter 27, but I believe that we will create the prerequisites for a prepared closure much earlier," said Ćulafić.
Speaking about the establishment of the Natura 2000 ecological network, one of the important obligations within this chapter, Ćulafić said that expert teams have already fully mapped the land area of Montenegro and a significant part of the territorial sea.
As he said, the next phase involves entering data into databases and public consultations, after which the state will determine the percentage of the territory that will be proposed for protection within the Natura 2000 network.
Montenegro's minimum obligation is to protect at least 30 percent of its land and the same amount of sea, while, according to Ćulafić, the goal is for that percentage to be even higher.
He said that the deadline for establishing the Natura 2000 network expires in June and that, despite previous delays, it is now realistic to expect that this obligation will be fulfilled on time.
"That deadline is already out of the question at this point. Although it has been an obligation that has been drastically delayed for a long time, Montenegro will fulfill it very successfully," said Ćulafić.
When asked about transition periods for fulfilling certain obligations under Chapter 27, Ćulafić announced that on February 17, Montenegro submitted to the EC a complete list of requests for their approval, which mainly relate to the construction of infrastructure in the areas of air protection, waste management and wastewater management.
"The transition periods are not excessively long. We requested a deadline of 2030 for the removal of all illegal landfills in Montenegro, and a transition period of ten years for the construction of the necessary wastewater treatment facilities," explained Ćulafić.
He believes that there is no reason why all requested transition periods should not be approved, stating that these are rational and reasonable requests that are in line with what is permitted by European directives and which correspond to the factual situation on the ground in Montenegro.
Ćulafić also said that strengthening administrative capacities is one of the key challenges, but that the Government has already adopted a new job systematization that will enable the employment of additional staff.
As he stated, this year, with the support of the European Commission and thanks to the allocated funds from the state budget, it is planned to hire new staff with specific knowledge - biologists, mechanical engineers, physicists and similar profiles that are not represented on the labor market.
"This will be a serious personnel boost and an indicator that Montenegro takes the recommendations coming from Brussels very seriously," said Ćulafić.
Former President of the European Council Charles Michel He recently announced that Montenegro could use part of European funds already in the pre-accession phase and gradually become involved in certain sectoral policies of the European Union, such as the energy market.
Ćulafić assessed that statement as a well-intentioned message which, as he said, indicates that a more flexible approach should be applied to Montenegro during the integration process.
He stated that he agreed with the position that Montenegro should be provided with broader access to European funds and programs already during the negotiation process.
"It seems to me that rarely has any country that is a member of the European Union today been asked to do as much as Montenegro is asking to do. I am not complaining about that, but I think it is a fact that should be communicated to the public," he said, adding that softening the approach towards Podgorica would be recognition of the reform steps the country has taken so far.
He recalled that last year Montenegro joined the LIFE program, the oldest European Union program for financing projects in the field of environmental protection and climate action, whose seven-year budget amounts to around EUR 5.1 billion.
Ćulafić stated that the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts received the first project from the LIFE program, which he considers an important signal that Montenegrin institutions can successfully use European funds.
Speaking about domestic projects in the field of environmental protection, Ćulafić said that the Government has declared the project for the remediation of the red mud basin and solid waste landfill in the Podgorica Aluminum Plant (KAP) zone to be of public interest with the aim of launching a new phase of solving a long-standing environmental problem and strengthening trust between citizens and the state.
"I am absolutely aware of the environmental and human health hazards of red mud pools," said Ćulafić, adding that the systems that previously prevented the dispersion of harmful particles from those locations have since been destroyed.
He explained that an additional problem is the fact that the pools are still privately owned, which makes it difficult for the state to react more quickly in their rehabilitation.
The government, he said, has already provided the financial prerequisites for remediation through a loan in cooperation with the World Bank in the amount of 32 million euros, which is intended for a broader program of remediation of landfills in Montenegro, including red mud pools.
The next step, according to Ćulafić, will be resolving property and legal issues, which the relevant ministries are already working on.
Ćulafić stated that all options are on the table, including purchasing the land from the owner or expropriation, given that the project has been declared in the public interest.
He assessed that the public is creating a wrong atmosphere about the red mud pools, pointing out that some politicians claim that this is not an environmental problem but a matter of the jurisdiction of the mining department due to, as they state, the valuable minerals in the area.
"For this government, red mud pools are and remain a pollutant and we will treat them exclusively as an environmental problem," said Ćulafić.
