BRUSSELS – The European Commission welcomes Montenegro’s ambitious timeline for progressing on its EU accession path and closing remaining chapters, says Ana Pisonero, European Commission Spokesperson, for European Western Balkans.
“Enlargement has been and will continue to be a strategic priority, as indicated by President von der Leyen in her political guidelines for the next Commission and reiterated at the recent Bled Strategic Forum”, Pisonero adds.
Reacting to RTCG’s report that the EC drafted a roadmap according to which Montenegro should close four chapters in its negotiation until the end of the year, Pisonero recalls that following the Intergovernmental Conference, where the Council set the closing benchmarks for the rule of law chapters paving the way for Montenegro to start provisionally closing further chapters, the Commission and Montenegro are working together to identify chapters that can be closed in the short- and medium term.
“The Commission stands ready to support Montenegro in their ambition to move fast. The timeline depends on Montenegro’s ability to continue progressing on the needed reforms, which as Montenegro adopts and implements them, will enable the procedure to provisionally close chapters”, Pisonero underlines.
She concludes that, overall, as before, the Commission will report on progress in Montenegro, including its recommendations, as part of its next Enlargement package in the autumn.
“The package will be assessed by the Council, which decides on the next steps on enlargement”, Pisonero says for EWB.
RTCG reported on Friday that Montenegro is planning to close four negotiation chapters by the end of the year ( 7 – Intellectual Property Law; 10 – Information Society and Media; 20 – Enterprise and Industrial Policy; 31- Foreign, Security and Defense Policy).
According to RTCG, although Montenegro’s ambition was to complete negotiations on Chapter 1 (Free Movements of Goods) by the end of this year, the European Commission in the roadmap estimates that this chapter might be ready for closure only in the first quarter of 2026.
The plan for the next year is to close six negotiation chapters, with Chapter 5 (Public Procurement) expected to be completed in the first half of the year. By the end of 2025, it is forecast that the final benchmarks could be met in chapters 3 (Right of Establishment and Freedom to Provide Services), 4 (Free Movement of Capital), 6 (Company Law), 11 (Agriculture and Rural Development), 13 (Fisheries).
The remaining chapters, according to RTCG, are expected to be closed in 2026, with the majority, ten chapters, in the last quarter of that year.
It is added that actual deadlines will depend on the results Montenegro achieves and the assessment of the EU member states, and they could vary by three to six months.
After the final chapter is closed, it will take about two more years for EU member states to ratify the decision on Montenegro’s accession. Montenegro’s plan is to complete negotiations on all chapters by the end of 2026, aiming to become the EU’s 28th member state in 2028.
Source link : https://europeanwesternbalkans.com/2024/09/10/pisonero-commission-and-montenegro-are-working-together-to-identify-chapters-that-can-be-closed/
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Publish date : 2024-09-10 07:00:00
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