The European Commission adopted a draft financial package worth nearly €3.2 billion for Montenegro under the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), on the assumption that the country joins the European Union in 2028, as previously reported by Agence Europe (see EUROPE 13889/18). The proposal provides for part of the cost of Montenegro’s accession to be offset through funds from the ‘Global Europe’ instrument, intended to finance the Union’s external action, while taking into account the proposed architecture for future internal EU policies.
“Montenegro’s Global Europe Plan will be prepared keeping in mind the requirements under the National and Regional Partnership Plans (‘NRPP’)”, according to the Commission proposal. Part of Montenegro’s national plan will therefore be financed under heading 3 (‘External Action – Global Europe’).
“For a national plan costing €2 billion, 1 billion would come from pre-accession funding. In other words, that represents savings of around 50%”, a senior European official explained.
The package of nearly € 3.2 billion over seven years would cover heading 1 (economic, social and territorial cohesion, agriculture, rural development and maritime affairs), heading 2 (competitiveness, prosperity and security), heading 3 (external action) and heading 4 (administration). By way of comparison, the Union’s annual budget exceeds €200 billion.
Overall, the Commission estimates that the net cost of Montenegro’s accession to the Union “would amount to less than €1 per citizen per year”, or “at most €500 million net over a period of seven years”. This estimate does not take account of Montenegro’s own contribution to the Union budget, which should amount to around €75 million per year, or roughly 1% of its GDP, according to a European official. The exact amount will also depend on the level of own resources allocated to the Commission.
The Commission will now send its proposal to the Council of the EU, in the hope of quickly securing its approval so that it can negotiate the financial provisions under chapter 33 of the accession negotiations “by the end of the year”, a senior European official said. Montenegro hopes to conclude the accession negotiations by the end of 2027 and join the Union in 2028 as the 28th Member State. A timetable that European officials describe as “ambitious”, while considering it achievable.
The senior European official added that the financial arrangements envisaged for Montenegro “will serve as a benchmark” for the other candidate countries for accession, “with the exception of Ukraine”, for which the MFF proposal provides for a separate instrument worth around €100 billion. For the record, the Commission proposal on the future MFF provides for an envelope of €200 billion for the Global Europe instrument, including €43.17 billion earmarked for the European pillar.
According to Commission estimates, the cost of accession of the six Western Balkan countries as well as Moldova would amount to “€35 billion in total, assuming they all join on 1 January 2028”, an assumption that the Commission nevertheless considers unrealistic. Given that “around 50%” of this sum would be covered by appropriations transferred from the Global Europe, instrument, the cost would be reduced to around €18 billion. “In terms of additional contributions that European taxpayers, through their Member States, would have to finance, for all these countries, assuming they all accede on 1 January, the amount would be €8 billion”, the European source concluded.
To see the document: https://aeur.eu/f/mna (Original version in French by Ana Pisonero Hernández)