Pre-accession negotiations
On December 15, 2008, Montenegro applied for EU membership and on December 17, 2010 received the status of the EU candidate country.
Formal accession negotiations between Montenegro and the EU began on June 29, 2012. All 33 chapters of the EU acquis have undergone screening procedures.
So far, 28 chapters have been opened for negotiation, three of which have been provisionally closed: Chapter 25 related to science and research (December 18, 2012), Chapter 26 on education and culture (provisionally closed on April 15, 2013) and Chapter 30 on international relations (June 6, 2017).
Besides Chapters 26 and 25, activities of education are particularly important for the following chapters:
Chapter 3: Right of establishment and freedom to provide services
Chapter 22: Regional policy and coordination of structural instruments
Chapter 23: Judiciary and fundamental rights
Education in pre-accession negotiations
Montenegrin efforts in education which are related to pre-accession negotiations and compliance with the European education strategies are aimed at adapting the education system to the labor market needs. Major directions in this regard have been presented in the Strategy for the development of South East Europe by 2020 (SEE 2020 Strategy), which follows the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Framework for European Cooperation in Education and Training (ET 2020).
Education has a prominent place in the SEE 2020 Strategy - Jobs and Prosperity in a European Perspective, especially within the following dimensions:
- Education and competences for smart growth, as well as
- Competitiveness for sustainable growth.
As to the education and competences dimension, the focus is on the two main objectives identified in
- early school leaving and
- higher education acquisition,
which coincide with the objectives of the Europe 2020 and ET 2020 strategies. Regional cooperation focused on specific issues envisaged by the SEE 2020 Strategy should provide support for national development strategies which include objectives related to EU accession.
IPA I (2012-2013)
Activities of Human Resource Development Program, 2012-2013, within the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA I), promote vocational and higher education, with an emphasis on innovation in teaching, providing skills and profiles with a view to harmonizing education with the labor market, in line with the requirements from strategic documents and requests for EU accession.
IPA II (2014-2020)
The Joint EU-MNE Programme for Employment, Education and Social Policies was officially launched in July 2018, when the Financial Agreement was signed, and will last until 31 December 2022, as part of the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II). The EU-MNE Programme’s overall value is 18 million euros, out of which 85% is EU’s contribution or 15,3 million euros, while Montenegro contributes with 15% or 2,7 million euros. The supported IPA II activities within the education sector follow the national reform processes and are based on national strategic priorities and goals which on the other hand, seek to align with the European trends and agendas. Consequently, these actions are for the most part continuation of the previous, IPA I perspective, and are aimed to improve the overall quality of education system at all levels focusing on: - the introduction of the key competences curriculum framework into the education system of Montenegro, followed with curriculum revision, professional training of principals, teachers, school teams and quality assurance officers, development of associated methodologies in quality assurance, advising reforms in initial and continuous professional development, and other activities; - aim to develop vocational education to meet the needs of the labour market through curriculum development, teacher training and improved practice-based learning, through strengthened cooperation between vocational education (VET) and business sector; - aim to provide a quality work-based learning to empower youth for the labour market challenges and facilitate the young to make transition from school to work and/or further education and lifelong learning; - aim to ensure equal opportunities in access to education for marginalized groups, by increasing the capacities of educational institutions to meet the educational and social needs of special education needs children and Roma and Egyptian students.
In this regard, nine projects have been implemented, out of these one project is aimed to contribute to the improvement of infrastructure in schools and three projects to supply schools with modern IT, customized and practical teaching equipment. In addition, a separate activity is aimed to support the employment of scientists in academic and/or business sector, though the implementation of the collaborative grant scheme for innovative project ideas.