EUROMIL held its 113^th Presidium Meeting in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, on 22 and 23 April 2016. Over 60 delegates joined the meeting, representing 26 different EUROMIL member associations from 19 countries. The Presidium, which meets twice a year, is composed of the Board of EUROMIL and one appointed delegate per member association. It approves the policy of the Board, provides impetus for the prospective further development of EUROMIL policy, decides on the accession of member associations and approves the budget.

During the opening session, Emmanuel Jacob, the President of EUROMIL, pointed out, that it was the first EUROMIL Presidium Meeting taking place in the Balkans. He warmly thanked SOVCG, the Montenegrin member association of EUROMIL, for inviting the Presidium to Podgorica.

In his welcoming speech, the President of SOVCG, Nenad Cobeljic, emphasized the importance of being a member of the EUROMIL family: “It gives us tailwind to achieve the many challenges we face.”

Mihailo Volkov, the Director for Human Resources in the Ministry of Defence of Montenegro, stated that in order to face the challenges of a globalised world, integration is a necessity on different levels. On the international level, Montenegro aims at becoming fully integrated in the European Union as well as NATO. On the national level, the relationship between the MoD and SOVCG has been steadily improving. Ministry and trade union “are on the same path”.

Srdja Kekovic, the Secretary General of the Union of Free Trade Unions of Montenegro (USSCG), declared the objective to fight for the recognition of the soldier as a Citizen in Uniform, insisting that this objective would entitle the latter to the same fundamental rights and freedoms as every other citizen.

Furthermore, the assembly discussed different internal affairs and held regional collaboration meetings. The Presidium concluded with two workshop sessions. The first one explored the regulations for military personnel in international headquarters. To illustrate the situation, two guest speakers, Mr. Hendriks and Mr. Pflügler, were invited to speak about their respective experience in the 1. GER/NL Corps of NATO in Münster, Germany. The second workshop examined the different national approaches to retain soldiers with severe handicaps in the armed forces. The EUROMIL Office may be contacted for any question related to these issues.

More information can be found on the internal pages under meeting documents.

The meeting was also reflected in Montenegrin media, an article can be found here.