Brussels – “We will write the next chapters of our common history together. Montenegro’s place in the European Union is now taking shape.” With these words, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos marked the 20th anniversary of Podgorica’s independence, when the country “decided to write a new chapter in the long history of Montenegrin statehood” on 21 May 2006.
At the national event held at the Plantaže “Šipčanik” vineyard near Podgorica, the Slovenian Commissioner made clear that the EU institutions want “Montenegro to become part of this fatefully connected community,” as the presence of the third post-Yugoslav country – after Slovenia and Croatia – could “strengthen Europe and bring us one step closer to completing our Union.”
The start of drafting the Accession Treaty, which began with the establishment of the Ad Hoc Working Party in Brussels, represents not only “a clear recognition” of Podgorica’s progress towards the EU, but also “an incentive to accelerate the remaining reforms” needed to complete the accession negotiations.
On the 20th anniversary of independence, Commissioner Kos reassured Montenegrins that “the European Union does not replace statehood” but, on the contrary, makes all its members “stronger together,” especially at a time when “no European state alone can fully shape the forces that surround it.”
For the first Commissioner for Enlargement from a former Yugoslav country, “this moment is deeply personal,” she told the audience at the event near Podgorica. “When I was growing up, Slovenians and Montenegrins were equal, and there were no borders separating us. We studied together, worked together, built friendships together.” However, “history took us on different paths, and we saw the worst face of humanity” during the wars that followed the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
Starting in 1991, “new borders appeared, and each nation had to find its own path” in the last 35 years. “But today, Europe gives us the opportunity to reunite – peacefully, freely, democratically, as equal partners,” Commissioner Kos concluded emotionally.
From Yugoslavia to the European Union
Montenegro was one of the six constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. From 1946 until 1992, Podgorica served as the capital of the Socialist Republic of Montenegro and was renamed Titograd in honour of the Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito. Until 1991, ties between Montenegro and Serbia were particularly close, given their historically intertwined culture, society, religion and economy.
With the dissolution of the socialist federation in 1991 – when Slovenia and Croatia declared independence, before Bosnia and Herzegovina did the same in 1992 – the Montenegrin political elite aligned itself with Belgrade and Slobodan Milošević’s ultra-nationalist project of a ‘Greater Serbia’, meaning a union of all territories with ethnic Serb populations.
Montenegro took part in the Yugoslav Wars alongside Serbia. More than 7,000 Montenegrin soldiers serving in the Yugoslav Army were deployed to the Croatian front, in the Dubrovnik and Konavle sectors, between 1991 and 1992. The most infamous events in which they were involved were the siege of Dubrovnik – from October 1991 to May 1992 – and the management of the Morinj prison camp until August 1992, where around 300 Croatian prisoners of war were interned. Four people were sentenced to a total of twelve years’ imprisonment for war crimes committed at the Morinj camp.
In the March 1992 referendum, a majority of Montenegrins voted to remain within Yugoslavia alongside Serbia. As a result, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was established on 27 April 1992. After the end of the war in Kosovo, the common state underwent a transformation – removing all reference to Yugoslavia – and became the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro on 4 February 2003, a hybrid between a federation and a confederation.
The growing independence movement in Montenegro, led by Milo Đukanović, led to the inclusion in the new Constitution of a clause allowing for a referendum on Montenegrin independence after three years. In the May 2006 referendum, independence was approved by 55.5% of voters – just 0.5 percentage points above the required threshold – leading to the dissolution of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro on 3 June and the establishment of two independent republics.
Just two years later, on 15 December 2008, Montenegro submitted its application for EU membership, waiting two more years to obtain candidate status on 17 December 2010. On 29 June 2012, accession negotiations began in Brussels, eight years after the first post-Yugoslav republic – Slovenia – joined the European Union, and one year before the second, Croatia, did the same.
Fourteen years later, all 33 screened negotiating chapters with Montenegro have been opened, and 14 have been provisionally closed, with the goal of completing all remaining work by the end of 2026 and becoming the EU’s 28th member state by 2028.
One of the obstacles on Montenegro’s path to EU membership relates to the recent post-Yugoslav past and the legacy of the war in Croatia. Since December 2024, Zagreb has vetoed the closure of Chapter 31 – ‘Foreign, Security and Defence Policy’, because of a number of bilateral disputes with Podgorica.
These include the demarcation of the border between the two countries on the Prevlaka peninsula; the ownership of the training ship Jadran – registered in the port of Split and later sent to Tivat for repairs before the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; the search for missing persons; the prosecution of and compensation for war crimes; and the controversy surrounding the municipal swimming pool in Kotor, which was named after Zoran Džimi Gopčević, one of Yugoslavia’s best water polo players, but also one of the guards at the Morinj camp.
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 14 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.
On 22 April 2026, the EU ambassadors endorsed the establishment of the Ad Hoc Working Party on Drafting the Accession Treaty, which started working on 13 May. Montenegro is considered the most advanced country in the EU enlargement process, with the aim of closing all chapters by the end of 2026.
