Brussels – Following an “excellent” 2025, Podgorica enters its most crucial year with further progress on its path towards EU accession. “Montenegro is on track to achieve its ambitious goal of closing all chapters in 2026, and I see no better year to do so,” said Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, referring to the Balkan country’s celebration of the 20th anniversary of its independence.
At the 25th Accession Conference with Montenegro on 26 January, Chapter 32 (Financial Control) was provisionally closed. As Commissioner Kos highlighted, “this is one of the chapters within the crucial Fundamentals Cluster,” which is composed of five chapters covering economic criteria, the functioning of democratic institutions and public administration reform. “There is a reason” for financial control being in the fundamentals, she stressed, pointing to “trust” in the national authorities that, “whatever the government is doing with the money, it is doing it in the right way.”
In total, 13 negotiating chapters have been closed so far, representing slightly more than one third of the 33 chapters in the accession process. In 2025, a total of six chapters was provisionally closed. Prime Minister Milojko Spajić now expects 2026 to be “the most decisive year in Montenegro’s path” towards EU accession, with the goal of becoming the 28th member state by 2028.
Spajić said this ambition gains additional traction in a year when Podgorica marks the anniversary of “regaining independence” from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2006, previously known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. That entity emerged after the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992, in which Montenegro had been one of the six constituent republics.
Twenty years on, the provisional closure of the second chapter within the Fundamentals Cluster – following Chapter 5 (Public Procurement) in June 2025 – raises “even more” hopes for the immediate future. However, despite this progress, Podgorica’s goal remains highly ambitious. The Fundamentals Cluster is the first to be opened and the last to be closed, and three chapters are still under review: Chapter 18 (Statistics), 23 (Judiciary and Fundamental Rights), and 24 (Justice, Freedom and Security). In particular, Chapters 23 and 24 remain the most sensitive elements, and without a substantial acceleration of reforms, closing all chapters by the end of 2026 will remain out of reach.
The state of EU-Montenegro relations
Montenegro submitted its application for EU membership in 2008. Candidate status was granted in June 2010, and accession negotiations began in 2012. To date, all 33 screened negotiating chapters have been opened, and 13 have been provisionally closed.
Moreover, in June 2024, Podgorica received a positive Interim Benchmark Assessment Report (IBAR), indicating that it has met the interim benchmarks in Chapter 23 (Judiciary and Fundamental Rights) and Chapter 24 (Justice, Freedom and Security) – a prerequisite for closing chapters deemed ready for provisional closure. For these reasons, Montenegro is considered the most advanced country in the EU enlargement process, with the aim of closing all chapters by the end of 2026.
