On Wednesday 26 June, the sixteenth 16th interministerial conference between the EU and Montenegro was held in Brussels, as part of Montenegro’s accession negotiations with the Union.
The meeting enabled representatives of both parties to take stock of the progress made by Montenegro in relation to Chapters 23 (judiciary and fundamental rights) and 24 (justice, freedom and security) of the common acquis.
“It is now clear that Montenegro has decided to continue its reforms and to align itself with the Union’s requirements in terms of the rule of law. The results are impressive and we can applaud the progress made”, declared Hadja Lahbib, Belgian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, at the end of the Conference.
The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, was also extremely optimistic about Montenegro’s future, saying that he expected the country “to be able to close a good number of chapters” in the near future.
Milojko Spajić, Prime Minister of Montenegro, strongly emphasised the work carried out by his country in recent years and the hope that this integration represented for Montenegrin society: “The next steps will require a lot of work, a lot of courage and a lot of energy, but we want to achieve excellent results in all chapters to become the 28th member of the EU by 2028”, he insisted.
At present, 33 chapters of Montenegro’s EU accession negotiations have been opened and three provisionally closed. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)