JOINT DECLARATION ON A POLITICAL DIALOGUE
BETWEEN THE EU AND MONTENEGRO
Letter from Rt Hon Geoff Hoon MP, Minister
for Europe, Foreign and Commonwealth Office to the Chairman
On 24 July,[66]
I wrote to advise you of the Presidency's proposal for a Joint
Declaration on a political dialogue between the EU and Montenegro
and enclosed for your information a draft copy. As promised, I
am now sending you the final version, which was adopted by the
General Affairs and External Relations Council on 15 September
and published in the EU's Official Journal on 7 October. You will
see that this version is only slightly amended from the draft,
and is based closely on the text of the Serbia and Montenegro
Declaration. Serbia has inherited the Joint Declaration on a political
dialogue between the EU and Serbia and Montenegro.
The political dialogue will take place through
high-level meetings between Montenegro and the EU, in the Troika
format; bilateral and multilateral exchange of information in
foreign policy decisions; and contacts at a parliamentary level.
This dialogue is part of the Stabilisation and Association process
and runs in parallel to, but separate from, the Stabilisation
and Associations negotiations.
On 21 May 2006, in a referendum assessed as
free and fair by the international community, the Republic of
Montenegro voted for independence from the State Union of Serbia
and Montenegro. Independence was formally declared on 3 June and
the UK recognised Montenegro as an independent sovereign state
on 13 June. On 5 June, the National Assembly in Belgrade declared
the Republic of Serbia to be the continuing international personality
of SaM. This was in accordance with the SaM Constitutional Charter
and is a position which the UK accepts.
19 October 2006
66 Correspondence with Ministers 40th Report of Session
2006-07, HL Paper 187, p203. Back
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