The President of the Veneto Regional Council Roberto Ciambetti, also as co-chair of the CoR's Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) with Montenegro, reiterated the support for Montenegro's integration into the EU in a meeting held in Kolašin, in the north of the country. "We welcome that the European Council on 14 December reaffirmed its full and unequivocal commitment to EU membership perspective of the Western Balkans" noted Mr Ciambetti. 

Mr Ciambetti emphasized that "Montenegro is in a crucial phase where fostering a national consensus on necessary reforms becomes imperative to invigorate the stalled EU negotiations process. Recent political developments have the potential to be decisive".

Montenegro has experienced a number of significant political changes in 2023, including the election of a new president and the formation of a new national government, which has expressed its intention to accelerate the reform process. Montenegro is seen as a frontrunner on the EU integration path, though the European Commission's latest annual progress report, published in November.

The meeting was co-chaired by Dušan Raičević, mayor of Bar, while Vladimir Martinović, Montenegrin minister for minister for tourism, environmental protection and sustainable development, was one of the key speakers on Montenegro's EU integration.