By invitation of Biljana Dulović, President of IPA Montenegro, a group of 7 Presidium Members, under the chairmanship of Piotr Wójcik, President of the Polish Section, visited Montenegro from 1-4 December 2021.
During the stay, which was linked to the signed cooperation agreement between our Sections, we had a number of meetings, both with the representatives of the Montenegro Police, i.e. a meeting with the Deputy Commander of the Border Guard and the Capital City Commander in Podgorica, a meeting in the Police Academy in Danilovgrad, as well as with our IPA colleagues from various regions of Montenegro (Regions Jug and Sevier, and the Central Region). The Vice President of IPA Montenegro, Vojislav Dragović, showed us the sports facilities where the IPA Games will be held in May 2022; he asked us for our opinion considering those facilities, and presented us with a preliminary programme of this sports event.
On the third day of our stay, a trip to the city of Szkoder in Albania was organised for us, where we had an opportunity to meet the representatives of IPA Albania and their President. We discussed a number of issues concerning the operations of our Sections, and we expressed our willingness to commence cooperation between IPA Albania and the Polish IPA Section. We have been invited to come to the Election Congress of IPA Albania, which will be held in February 2022, and we agreed to start the discussions on establishing cooperation between our Sections after the elections.
On the last day of our stay, we held a joint session of the Presidium of IPA Poland the Presidium of IPA Montenegro. During the session, which was held in the city of Bar, we discussed the cooperation we had had so far, and agreed on how the cooperation would continue in 2022. Our 4-day stay in Montenegro was held in a fully professional way, the meetings and visits were truly substantive, and the care which we experienced from our colleagues from the IPA Montenegro Presidium was perfect. Although the weather was not pleasant, as it rained for 2 days, the organisers ensured we could see the most beautiful places in Montenegro such as Kotor, Ulcinij, Budva, Podgorica, the island of Saint Stephen and Old Bar.
The cooperation between the IPA Montenegro Section and the IPA Polish Section will continue in the years to come and, as it was agreed during the joint session, it needs to be transferred to the regional level, namely between the regions in both IPA sections.
Piotr Wójcik, President IPA Poland