Tomislav Sokol: Glorifying Mladić Is Incompatible With EU Membership

Croatian European Parliament member Tomislav Sokol says Montenegro cannot move toward European Union membership while people glorify convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić. He has asked the European Commission to take the issue into account as it assesses Montenegro’s progress.

Sokol raised the matter alongside Marjan Šarec, the European Parliament’s standing rapporteur for Montenegro, and Thomas Waitz, who leads the Parliament’s delegation for relations with Montenegro. Their joint question also focused on political stability, security and respect for European values in the EU candidate country.

“

Claims of this weight must be supported by facts. Otherwise, there is a danger that they become a tool of political populism that can be just as harmful to the country's stability and its European path as the hybrid activity being warned about.

Sokol said Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajić’s claim that officials from at least two countries in the region were involved in coordinated hybrid activity required an institutional response. “Claims of this weight must be supported by facts,” Sokol said, warning that otherwise they could become a tool of political populism that would harm Montenegro’s stability and European path.

“

Montenegro is approaching the final phase of accession negotiations, and precisely for that reason it must now prove that it is ready not only to adopt European legislation, but also to unequivocally defend European values.

He said the glorification of Mladić, whom he described as responsible for war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, had no place on Montenegro’s European path. “We cannot close negotiating chapters while simultaneously closing our eyes to the glorification of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić,” he said.

Sokol argued that Montenegro, which he said is approaching the final phase of accession negotiations, must show that it can defend European values as well as adopt EU legislation. He asked the Commission to clarify how the glorification of Mladić would affect its further assessment of Montenegro’s membership conditions.

“

We cannot close negotiating chapters while simultaneously closing our eyes to the glorification of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić.