Croatia Declares Three Montenegrin Officials Personae Non Gratae

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The Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs on July 25 sent a note to the Embassy of Montenegro in Zagreb notifying it that Croatia had declared Montenegrin Parliament Speaker Andrija Mandic, MP Milan Knezevic and Deputy Prime Minister Aleksa Becic personae non gratae.

The three have been declared personae non gratae "because of [their] systemic activities toward undermining good neighborly relations with the Republic of Croatia and continuous abuse of the Republic of Croatia for internal political purposes," the Croatian ministry says on its website.

"The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs regrets the fact that the majority in the Montenegrin Parliament has decided to ignore continuous calls from the Republic of Croatia not to make moves that could negatively affect our bilateral relations and Montenegro's European path. In that context, the activities of the aforementioned political officials particularly stand out, and their actions certainly cannot be considered benevolent and good neighborly relative to the Republic of Croatia, nor are they in line with the declared goal of Montenegro's membership in the European Union," the ministry stated.

The statement stresses good neighborly relations as one of the key elements of the enlargement and stabilization and association processes, as well as one of the key criteria for assessing progress in Montenegro's accession process, in line with the EU's Negotiating Framework for Montenegro.

According to the statement, Croatia supports a European Montenegro and the process of joining the EU and has been advocating progress on the country's European path. "The Republic of Croatia expects that Montenegro will act in accordance with European values and in the European spirit and that it will focus its efforts on further meeting the conditions and criteria in the accession process," says the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.

Andrija Mandic’s New Serb Democracy and Milan Knezevic’s Democratic People’s Party make up the For the Future of Montenegro coalition, which became part of a reshuffled Montenegrin cabinet two days ago. Becic is the leader of the Democrats. 

Mandic and Knezevic initiated the adoption of a Resolution on Genocide in Jasenovac in the Montenegrin Parliament on June 28, and Aleksa Becic's Democrats supported the resolution.

Upon the announcement of adoption of this resolution, Croatia sent a note of protest to Montenegro.