Montenegrin President Jakov Milatović said today that the tourism agreement with the United Arab Emirates isn’t really an example of rule of law more like a rule of deals. He’s currently in Tirana for the European Political Community Summit and made it clear he wants to believe Montenegro is moving closer to being a country where the law truly matters.
He mentioned that in all his talks including a dinner with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa, and EU High Representative Kaja Kallas the focus was always on the rule of law. That’s why he commented on the UAE tourism deal the way he did: for him, it’s not about following legal processes, but about backroom agreements and that’s not how things should work.
Milatović said Montenegro needs to be a country where laws are respected, not a place where deals of questionable nature decide how things are done. He even called the agreement a step backward, not forward.
His message? The EU has been super clear about what they expect, and it’s up to Montenegro’s government and parliamentary majority to take those signals seriously. Because, as he put it, how they act now will directly affect how fast Montenegro moves toward the EU.
It’s one thing to sign international deals, but it’s another to make sure they’re done the right way. What Milatović said really hits a nerve because we’ve all seen what happens when “deals” are made behind closed doors without clear rules. It might look like progress on paper, but if it skips over transparency and fairness, it ends up costing more in the long run. His call for real rule of law isn’t just about politics it’s about trust. And if Montenegro wants to move forward, especially toward the EU, trust has to be earned, not negotiated.
Written by our correspondent A.A.
