On Tuesday 17 March, Montenegro concluded its accession negotiations on Chapter 21, covering trans-European networks, at an Intergovernmental Conference in Brussels.
This provisional closure comes less than two months after the previous Accession Conference on 26 January, which provisionally closed Chapter 32 on financial control. This is “the second Intergovernmental Conference for Montenegro under the Cyprus Presidency, [... and] today’s progress confirms the strong momentum of its accession negotiations“, welcomed Cypriot Deputy Minister for European Affairs Marilena Raouna.
Montenegro has opened the 33 negotiation chapters. With the provisional closure of Chapter 21, fourteen chapters are now provisionally closed.
Prime Minister of Montenegro Milojko Spajić promised that his country was ready to pick up the pace, hoping to conclude all the chapters this year. Ms Raouna expressed her confidence that in the coming months there would be “more and more accession conferences to bring Montenegro closer to its goal of becoming the 28th EU Member State in 2028“. European Commissioner Marta Kos, who will be visiting the country at the end of the month, emphasised that Montenegro is truly number one among the States involved in the accession process.
As well as continuing to close chapters, the Cypriot minister reiterated that establishing, as quickly as possible, an ad hoc working group to draft Montenegro’s accession treaty to the EU was a priority for the Cyprus Presidency of the EU Council. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)