Luxembourg, 23/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 22 June, Montenegro opened two new negotiation chapters with the European Union: Chapter 9 on financial services, and Chapter 21 on trans-European networks.
With these two new chapters, 20 negotiation chapters have now been opened, two of which have been provisionally closed. Montenegro's minister for foreign affairs and European integration, Igor Luksic, said he thought that with the opening of these chapters his country was making “a step towards EU accession, and more importantly, towards the EU's quality of life”. Other accession conferences will be planned, should they be needed, before advancing in the process in the second half of 2015, the Council said in its communication. The accession negotiations were launched in June 2012.
During the press conference, European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn stated that “the negotiations go hand in hand with progress in the rule of law”. Thus, while hailing the reforms taken - for example, in the fight against corruption and the reform of the judicial system - he said that it was now important to implement them. Hahn added that it was important to take stock on the fight against organised crime. Latvia's foreign minister, Edgars Rinkevics, highlighted the need for freedom of the media and also for reform in the administration. The Stabilisation and Association Council with Montenegro strongly encouraged the country to continue and accelerate the process of reform in order to achieve a more efficient public administration. This Council also encouraged Montenegro to continue its efforts to improve its economic competitiveness through broader diversification of its economy. In addition, the Europeans hailed Montenegro's full alignment with the EU's common foreign and security policy. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)