SPEECH BY MR MEVLÜT ÇAVUŞOĞLU,

PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE,

BEFORE THE PARLIAMENT OF MONTENEGRO

(Podgorica, 17 May 2010)

Mr Speaker, Excellencies,

Distinguished members of the Parliament of Montenegro,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure for me to address you here today, on one of my first visits since I was elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe just a few months ago.

As you know, I come from Turkey, a country which, like yours, is located in South-Eastern Europe - a region which has seen many changes in the course of its history, including over the last 20 years. They have been dramatic - indeed often traumatic - changes for many of its populations, among them you Montenegrins. It is also a great honour to be the first Assembly President to pay an official visit to your country, since it became member of the Council of Europe.

Each visitor to Montenegro is struck first of all by its natural beauty: the sea and the towering mountains, with their dense, green forests, which apparently once gave your country its name. I am impressed with the kindness of your people. And I get the impression that Montenegro has come to peace with itself, in its independence gained almost to the day four years ago.

Perhaps this peacefulness has something to do with the fact that your independence came peacefully, through a referendum. Perhaps it is also due to the clear progress you have made over this time. I am thinking of various things:

- the membership in the Council of Europe, reached only a year after the independence, in May 2007

- the adoption of a new constitution shortly after that – a constitution which has been broadly welcomed by the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly, and by the international community more generally

- the Stabilisation and Association Agreement you concluded with the European Union in October 2007

- your application for EU membership in 2008

- the adoption of the Euro as your official currency, as a sign of your commitment to such membership

- the agreement with the European Union on a visa-free regime, reached in December last year.

The citizens of Montenegro, together with their Serb and Macedonian neighbours, can now travel without a visa to the countries of the European Union. This is a major achievement: it helps bring people together, share ideas, develop a common vision on Europe’s future, learn from each other.

And of course we have to mention the adoption of numerous Council of Europe standards and conventions which will, I am sure, assist Montenegro on its road to the European Union membership that you seek.

We expect the European Union to make full use of the reports of the Assembly when preparing its opinion on the membership application, as was the case on many previous occasions.

Another very encouraging note is the good co-operation of your authorities with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. I can only encourage you to continue this close collaboration, especially as regards the search and arrests of indictees who are still at large now.

Of course, challenges remain, as was pointed out in a debate held only three weeks ago during our Parliamentary Assembly’s session in Strasbourg, on the first report on ‘Honouring of obligations and commitments by Montenegro’.

In this connection, taking into consideration the recommendations made by the Assembly in this report, I invite you to achieve the process of ratification of several important Council of Europe conventions and complete the adoption of some important laws, such as a new one governing the elections of the members of Parliament.

The mechanisms of parliamentary oversight over the activities of the Government, particularly with respect to the implementation of laws adopted by the Parliament, should also be strengthened.

Strengthening the capacity of the Parliament also means making adequate resources and premises available to it, as well as using the Parliamentary Assembly’s expertise and funding opportunities offered by the European Union, in particular within the framework of the Instrument for Pre-Accession.

Finally, I encourage you, in particular the members of the delegation to Strasbourg, to take full advantage of the possibilities offered by their presence in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

To sum up, the important thing is that the Assembly’s evaluation, if I may call it that, is overall positive. We welcome the efforts and the important achievements you have made, and we hope that Montenegro will maintain the current reform dynamic and complete the implementation of its commitments.

There is a deeper message to that report or any others drawn up regarding the situation in other countries across our forty-seven-state membership, from Iceland in the West to Russia in the East, from Norway in the North to Malta in the South.

It is a message that pervades the entire work of the Parliamentary Assembly and indeed the Council of Europe, where Montenegro is such an active and committed member. And that is why the Council of Europe, in the last analysis, is here to ensure the well-being and long-term social and political evolution and harmony of our member states - individually and together.

The member states should feel, and do feel, that they have a friend in the Council of Europe. A friend who comes to see you regularly – such as the Rapporteurs from, say, the Assembly’s Monitoring Committee, in preparation of the Montenegro report, pay a visit for the purpose of their work.

True, sometimes the visitors may come across as being a little too curious, a little too inquisitive when they ask questions about this and that, and wish to visit various authorities and institutions to learn more.

If we take South-Eastern Europe as an example, since the beginning of this year the Assembly has debated about the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina twice – in January and April – as well as that in Albania and Bulgaria. The same holds for many other parts of Europe.

But our member states willingly accept such scrutiny, for they know that the Assembly’s Committees act on its behalf, inspired by the belief that the long-term development of our societies is ensured only if it builds on the highest standards of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

May I now say a few words about the wider South-Eastern Europe of which Montenegro forms such an important part. The last two decades have seen a large number of states arise in this region, following the break-up of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Having visited your region often in recent times, I have the feeling that there is a readiness among many of the new countries of the former Yugoslavia to re-establish links with each other: a new openness to dialogue. I would welcome such a development.

And in fact, such a process would seem to me rather natural. For unlike people, countries cannot move geographically. Nor can they obtain new neighbours. The earth is too heavy to move for that. They will keep the neighbours they have always had - and so, after a possible period of estrangement from each other, they may realise, sooner or later, that they are better off seeking more contact and exchanges with each other, whether through personal relations, trade, investment or joint projects. Affinities may grow as a result.

This seems to hold true for South-Eastern Europe today, when so many countries - including my own Turkey - are seeking to join the European Union.

As you know, the Union observes strict criteria for membership – prominent among them the so-called ‘Copenhagen criteria’, which lay out requirements in the fields of democracy, human rights, the rule of law and an efficient market economy.

This means that candidate countries can only meet these criteria if they improve their standards. I myself, for example, have spent the last few weeks in Ankara, heavily involved in the work of my country to further improve its constitution.

To conclude, in the Council of Europe we have forty-seven member states. It is natural that each of these countries should have their particular national interests, just as they each have their own Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But at the same time we are all passengers in the same boat, a boat called Europe. We sail together towards a common, shared destiny.

So we all have to follow certain common rules, trim the sails together, so that the boat can move forward. And move forward we must. If the sails do not catch the wind, the rudder cannot steer.

Once again, let me thank you for receiving me here today, and let me underline what a pleasure it is to be here and meet all the dignitaries and Montenegrins in general that I have had and will have the pleasure to see. From here I shall go on to Skopje where the Assembly will hold meetings in the next few days. I shall take along the same overall message of hope and trust in the future that I have had the honour of sharing with you today.

I thank you for your attention.