6. Conclusions

• SDG11 (Sustainable cities and communities) is linked with 27—Environment, but also

• SDG12 (Sustainable consumption and production) as well as SDG13 (Climate action) is

• SDG16 (Peace, justice and strong institutions) is linked with C8 (Competition and State Aid), C22 Regional policy, C23 & C23—Rule of Law chapters, C31—Foreign, security and

• SDG17 (Partnership for the goals) is linked with C16—Taxation, C17—EMU, C18 –Statistics, C22 - Regional policy, C24—Justice, freedom and security, C30—Foreign policy, C32

Using the explained methodology, it is possible to "cover" all SDGs with areas of the negotiation, but not with the same intensity. The European integration process has better potential to 'accelerate' SDG achievement when they are linked to economic development, but less in the

Today, social realties within European countries (including both Member States and Candidate Countries) differ greatly, especially in the areas such as education and health, employment patterns, wages, incomes and social protection systems. Unemployment rates are falling but differ substantially across Europe, youth unemployment is falling but remains high, employment is recovering and growing steadily, but employment rates differ; social protection systems also differ across Europe [29]. Hence, special attention should be given in the forthcoming period to the social dimension of development and negative externalities of economic growth

Through the pre-accession support, Berlin process and the Connectivity agenda (followed with the international financial institutions), the EU will continue to support building infrastructure in energy, transport, environment and social policy area. We can conclude that European pre-accession assistance and future EU structural fund support are excellent opportunities also in the areas of green economy and support for local sustainable economic

If we compare the closing benchmarks with the level of achievement of SDGs and SDG targets measured through SDG indicators—the conclusion could be the same. Based on the content analysis, 74 closing benchmarks and 83 interim benchmarks, defined for specific negotiation chapters within the process of EU accession talks of Montenegro [14], cover more than 60% of SDG related targets, which confirm high level of complementarities of those two processes. It is specifically important for potential improvement of their monitoring and reporting documents through close cooperation of their coordination structures for reporting and using of the

• SDG14 (Life below water) is linked with C13—Fishery and C27—Environment;

• SDG15 (Life on land) is also linked with 27—Environment;

defense policy and C33—Financial and budgetary provisions;

(Financial control) and C33 (Financial and budgetary provisions);

with C26—Education and culture;

78 Statistics - Growing Data Sets and Growing Demand for Statistics

linked with 27—Environment;

areas of social dimension of development.

even during the process of European integration.

development projects.

same indicators in a lot of cases.

The Government of Montenegro nationalized 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development by adopting the National Strategy for Sustainable Development (NSSD) in 2016, together with a corresponding Action Plan for its implementation. The NSSD is umbrella, horizontal and long-term development strategy of Montenegro that relates not only to environment and economics, but also to human resources, valuable social capital that should ensure prosperous development, recommendations for establishing the framework of financing and governance for sustainable development. The NSSD represents strategic framework for the transposition of the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) and its indicators into national context. The NSSD Action plan, divided in six thematic areas with 30 strategic goals of sustainable development of Montenegro and their 102 measures and 601 sub-measures, represents very complex mechanism for monitoring and reporting about achieving the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Montenegro.

The key phase for success of the NSSD 2030 implementation, and therefore for achieving sustainable development of Montenegro, is monitoring and reporting on the results of its implementation. This paper is focused on analysis of readiness of Montenegro to prepare the first monitoring report on the NSSD 2030 implementation scheduled for 2019.

Based on conducted analysis, we can conclude that Montenegro is well advanced in preparation of all preconditions for that process. We based this conclusion on the following achievements analyzed:


estimation of the level of its interoperability/compatibility with the Government IT system.

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• The conducted above research analysis confirmed that there are complementarities between the implementation process of NSSD 2030 and the process of the EU accession; fulfillment of the obligations of accession and later obligations of full membership in the Union, contribute strongly to the achievement of the Montenegro's NSSD 2030. In the final phase of the European integration process of Montenegro it would be very useful to further strengthen recognized inter-linkages between the EU agenda and UN 2030 Agenda (SDGs and negotiation chapters and sub-chapters; closing benchmarks and SDG targets; pre-accession assistance and transposition of SDGs into national development policy context).

In order to be better prepared for development of the first monitoring report for the NSSD 2030, Montenegrin authorities should also organize a series of public awareness sensible campaign on local level about importance of UN SDGs for overall social and economic development of Montenegro.

In addition to all of the above mentioned, the Instrument for pre-accession assistance should be used more for greening of Montenegrin economy and achieving of the SDGs, along with finding additional sources for funding the NSSD 2030 implementation. European investment and structural funds support will follow the pre-accession assistance and could strongly support Montenegro's sustainable economic development projects.
