On Thursday 15 September, the prime minister of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović, stated that the EU should be more encouraging towards accession candidate countries.
During a foreign affairs committee hearing at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, he emphasised: "I want them to be more encouraging towards us and know whether they are saying, ‘yes, our doors are open to you’". According to Đukanović, stability in the Western Balkans will be through EU integration. "Enlargement policy is a key factor in political stability, economic development and democracy in the Western Balkans", he said, adding that "this is why we think that the Berlin process brings a new dimension to EU policy towards the Western Balkans. We need to maintain and improve this process". The Berlin process was launched in 2014 as a means of consolidating the dynamic of the integration process for countries in the Western Balkans.
Đukanović also explained that Montenegro will be "ready to open new negotiating chapters by the end of the year" but did not provide any further precisions as to which chapters these would be. He also said that the chapters that had been opened should now be closed. The country has opened 24 chapters out of 35. Two of these have been provisionally closed.
Although Podgorica has aligned its sanctions with those of the EU concerning Russia and is soon expected to join NATO, the prime minister was keen to explain that his country "did not want to burn all bridges with Russia", which he described as a country that had always been an ally. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)