The Delegation of the Negotiating team of the Government of Montenegro leading by the chief negotiator,Mr Mersad Mujevic, the Head of Public Procurement Administration was in attendance at the 70th session of the Committee for Public Procurement of the WTO in the period of 17-22 November in Geneva.
The aim of the visit and negotiation of the Montenegrin delegation was the first substantial discussion on the Initial offer of Montenegro for accession to the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) under the WTO. Montenegro submitted its first formal offer on 4 November of the current year which is entirely based on the EU offer.
Montenegrin commitment on commencing the negotiations in this year are defined by signing its WTO accession agreement in 2012.
In the course of the comprehensive negotiations, the delegation of Montenegro held 12 bilateral negotiation meetings and also one multilateral presentation at the informal meeting of the GPA Committee.
Bilateral meetings were conducted with the delegations of the following countries, members of the GPA as follows: USA, Japan, Switzerland, Israel, Norway, Taiwan, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore; two meetings with the EU delegation; as well as the separate meeting with the presiding of the Committee for the Government Procurement under the WTO; the Ambassador to Canada Bruce Christie and WTO Secretary Robert Anderson.
Montenegrin delegation held the Introduction meeting with the leaders of the GPA Committee under the WTO having confirmed of its support and its continuation to the full membership of Montenegro in the GPA.
The Ambassador Bruce Christie emphasized that the Montenegrin Initial offer is transparent, law-based and prepared by the support of his team. The fact of its two-phase structure, part A and B, stands for the offer prior as well as following the accession to the EU making contribution to the transparency of the process.
Thereby the Member states are informed in detail regarding Montenegro position upon its membership to the EU and without eventual compensation in such process.
Delegation of the European Union welcomed the Montenegrin initial negotiation assessing its offer as a unique and its model as an interesting precedent given that the candidate country for accession to the EU accompanied the opening of the negotiations. They pointed out Brussels position that GPA member states may not expect compensatory adjustments upon Montenegro accession to the EU. Suggestions of the EU Delegation on Montenegro Initial offer referred to the relevant technical issues, as to the exemptions from the application.
Montenegrin offer was assessed as a positive, daring and professionally designed by all delegations, especially those of Switzerland, Taiwan and Norway provided full support to the membership of Montenegro in GPA. USA, Japan, Korea, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel gave specific suggestions in view of text improving, which are more technical in nature.
The chief of the negotiation team, Mr Mujević, in association with Ms Sanja Poleksić, Adviser in Public Procurement Administration; Mrs Tanja Janović, Representative of the Ministry of Finance and Mr Schnitzer, EBRD Consulatant demonstrated high level of preparation and expertise in the course of negotiation procedure.
In the final part of presentation the chief negotiator Mr Mujevic expressed his pleasure for the GPA members on their entire support of the structuring approach to the Montenegrin Initial offer thus avoiding possible conflict upon Montenegro accession to the EU. Also, the special attention is paid to the approach of Montenegro where the offer of the Annexes 1-3 divided into parts A and B was considered “the best course of action“ and the best approah towards transparency.
Given the specific operating and legal situation in the negotiations with Montenegro in relation to the EU, presiding of the GPA Committee, ambassador Christie announced of the Committee`s additional proposal of the Annex as an integral part of the decision on Montenegro accession to the GPA thus ensuring the EU of its definite position upon Montenegro accession to the GPA all to the end of full protection of the EU member states from the possibility of arising of the compensatory issues. This annex to the decision would be adopted by all GPA parties upon the final decision on Montenegro offer reception and its membership to the GPA.
The Delegation of Montenegro further activities
Actions of the negotiation team of Montenegro are focused on revising the Initial offer in accordance with the outcomes in bilateral meetings. For the purpose of clarity a number of entities shall be supplemented to the central-government indicative lists including the entities from the indicative list of Annexes 2 and 3 into our revised Offer.
Apart from the additional explanations and technical issues we will also adopt the suggestions of the majority of member states and delete the part of the exceptions in Annex 7.
The revised offer will be submitted in the shortest time to the GPA member states by our delegation, in order to enable Montenegro to join the family of the GPA member states as soon as possible.
