Government officially renames Kotor swimming pool „City Swimming Pool - Petar II Petrović Njegoš“ and approves memorial plaque in Morinj

The Government of Montenegro adopted a decision at a telephone session held yesterday to rename the swimming pool in Kotor the „City Swimming Pool – Petar II Petrović Njegoš“ and approved the memorial plaque in Morinj, which was installed in 2022.

The decisions adopted yesterday concern the fulfilment of some of the requirements Croatia has put forward to Montenegro in connection with the closure of negotiating Chapters 23 (Judiciary and Fundamental Rights) and 31 (Foreign, Security and Defence Policy).

- It is hereby established that there is a special public interest in granting subsequent approval for the memorial referred to in Article 1 of this decision, in view of its social significance, which is reflected in Montenegro’s accession to the European Union, in accordance with the expert assessment of the justification for granting subsequent approval for the memorial already erected, as referred to in Article 1 of this decision - the Government’s explanation accompanying the decision on the Morinj memorial plaque states.

It should be recalled that most of Croatia’s demands concern the consequences of the wars of the 1990s. The Croatian Government called for the preservation of the memorial plaque in Morinj, which ministers from the two countries jointly unveiled on 10 October 2022, bearing text proposed by the Montenegrin side. Croatia also demanded that the name of the municipal swimming pool in Kotor be changed. The facility had been named after water polo player Zoran Gopčević, who, according to the Croatian side, served as a guard at the Morinj camp in 1991–1992.