Brief Review Brief Review: Montenegro and the EU Integrations – Cape of Good Hope Montenegro has recently submitted an official request to gain candidate status for the membership in the European Union. At the grand ceremony in Paris, the Montenegro Prime Minister, Milo Đ ukanovi ć, gave the request to the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy. Montenegro thus became the third Western Balkan state that made a step forward towards EU. After this act, the European integrations do seem like the foreign policy priority of the Montenegro Government and create a good image. All statements made by the Montenegro officials confirm that, but there are voices that in practice things are a bit different. The fact is, that in some areas, the government is in no hurry to fulfill the EU standards, especially where it concerns the most lucrative activities like the investment transparency, energy sector, natural and economical resources. On the other hand, all candidate states strive to retain their sovereignty over these areas as long as possible, so this should not be a surprise. After gaining the candidate status and prior to a full pledged membership of the EU, Montenegro will have to work on a kind of image change on the international scene. For such an endeavor, it will need diplomacy capable for lobbying for the support of the EU member countries on its road to the EU. Still, at this point, it is hard to give an assessment of the Montenegro diplomacy network capacities. Next to it being a very young diplomacy, it’s international policy is tailored within the narrow circle of the officials form the highest institutions, the Prime minister, the President, minister of Foreign Affairs and, to some extent, the President of the Montenegro Assembly. In reality, there is a shortage of the staff educated in Diplomacy and International Relations, as well as the shortage of experience and personal contacts, as well as the problem of knowing the foreign languages. As far as the EU integrations are concerned, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there is a Sector for the EU, but it doesn’t have enough capacity. However, it is fair to say, that the unresolved issues, or, to put it better, bilateral problem­issues, do not greatly affect the Montenegro cooperation with other Western Balkan countries. Montenegro has excellent relationships with the other countries of the Western Balkan. There are some disputes, like the border on Prevlaka with Croatia, but that is being resolved through a political dialogue. It seems that the diplomatic problem with Serbia, which has requested of the Ambassador of Montenegro to leave Belgrade after Montenegro acknowledged the independence of Kosovo, will be resolved by Montenegro sending a new Ambassador to Belgrade. As far as the issue of the border area between Montenegro and BiH in Sutorina is concerned, which has recently been raised in the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, and a demand for initiating a lawsuit claiming that it is BiH territory, Montenegro did not pay much attention to it; just like the BiH media. Montenegro is ignoring this issue in order to build better relations with BiH. In any case, it is up to the BiH Presidency and BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make the next move. The only thing that isn’t clear is which entity would claim Sutorina if it was returned to BiH, and what they 172 Foreign Policy Review-godina 3, broj 3