European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, stated on December 16 in Brussels that Montenegro has never been closer to the European Union (EU).
She said this after Montenegro, at the Intergovernmental Conference with the EU on Tuesday, closed five negotiation chapters in the process of joining the European bloc.
These are the chapters: 3 – Freedom of movement of capital and provision of services; 4 – Freedom of movement of capital; 6 – Trade law; 11 – Agriculture and rural development and 13 – Fisheries.
Kos reiterated the position that Montenegro is the leader of the integration process and the candidate with the best results, which, according to her, "was proven today with 12 closed chapters" out of a total of 33.
"But we have to be honest: the hardest part is still ahead, because Montenegro has announced that it wants to complete the negotiations by the end of 2026, and the European Commission supports you. To achieve this, you need to run fast," Kos said.
The senior European official stressed that Montenegro must now accelerate reforms.
"The key will be reforms in the rule of law. Appointments are a priority, to ensure an independent judiciary, where judges can make decisions freely and without political pressure. This also means continuing the strong fight against corruption and organized crime, so that no one is above the law," Kos said.
She reiterated that Podgorica will have the EU's support "at every step".
"The next year will be decisive and more than ever Montenegro needs national unity to achieve its goal. Next year can be even better," she said.
Prime Minister Milojko Spajic declared that Montenegro has closed more than a third of the chapters in the EU accession negotiations, describing this as a great success.
He said that with Montenegro, the EU is gaining a member capable of walking side by side with several member states, even though it was once the poorest republic of the former Yugoslavia.
"Montenegro will not be a major tax burden for EU citizens."
According to him, every day it is proving that it is a realistic goal for Montenegro to close all chapters by the end of 2026.
"We are creating the conditions to fulfill all of them by the end of next year," said Spajic.
The Government of Montenegro has previously repeated several times the plan to close the remaining 21 chapters during 2026, so that the country can join the EU in 2028.
The Government had previously announced that all conditions for the closure of Chapter 31, which relates to foreign, security and defense policy, had been met, but the decision to close it had been postponed earlier at the request of Croatia.
Croatia blocked the closure of this chapter after the Montenegrin Parliament in 2024 adopted the Resolution on the genocide in Jasenovac, at the initiative of the pro-Russian and pro-Serb parties in the ruling majority, whose leader is the current speaker of parliament, Andrija Mandić, which official Zagreb considered a provocation.
Montenegro started negotiations for EU membership in June 2012. /REL/
