Croatia’s Demands Over a Warship and Swimming Pool Threaten Montenegro’s EU Bid

The small country of Montenegro, with just over 600,000 inhabitants, has been negotiating EU membership since 2012. The pace has picked up in recent years, and the target is now clearly set for 2028.

But first, Croatia, which joined the EU in 2013, must be appeased. The neighbouring country has a long list of demands, most of which date back to the 1990s war in the former Yugoslavia.

At the EU summit in Brussels earlier in October, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic ran through the entire list for his colleagues.

Prison camps

According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, among others, Montenegro is being asked to take measures related to a prison camp in the coastal town of Morinj, where hundreds of Croats were held at the beginning of the 1991–92 war. Croatia wants former prisoners to receive compensation and wants to see prosecutions for crimes against civilians at the camp.

In the nearby town of Kotor, the swimming pool was also named after Zoran “Jimmy” Gopcevic (1955–2000), remembered at home primarily as a water polo star who won Olympic silver and World Cup bronze. But he was also a camp guard in Morinj, prompting Croatia to demand a name change.

That has now happened after the Montenegrin parliament approved a law change requiring sports facilities to be named only after people who have been dead for at least 40 years. Since last week, the Gopcevic Hall has been named after Petar II Petrovic-Njegos, one of the country's leaders in the 19th century.

School ship

Croatia is also demanding cooperation in the search for Croats still missing after the war and a resolution to long-standing disputes over Croatian property in Montenegro.

The countries also disagree over who has the right to the old Yugoslav navy training ship Jadran, a three-masted sailing ship built in 1930.

At the outbreak of war in 1991, the ship had temporarily left its base in Split, in present-day Croatia, for repairs in Tivat, in present-day Montenegro.

It is now a Montenegrin training ship, despite Croatian protests.

Montenegro has so far completed 21 of the 33 so-called negotiation chapters in its discussions with the EU and is now anxiously awaiting news about the next steps.

The European Commission's next annual report on the state of enlargement will be released on Wednesday, November 4, and is expected to include, for the first time, a date by which the country is expected to be ready.