Montenegro gets EU nod to start closing accession chapters

The Adriatic state launched EU membership talks in 2012 and has so far opened all 33 negotiating chapters, but has closed only three of them..

The EU also set benchmarks for the provisional closure of Chapters 23 and 24, including detailed criteria for meeting these benchmarks, the Council of the EU said in a statement on Wednesday, after the end of the 16th Intergovernmental Conference with Montenegro.

"Today is a historic moment. I would like to thank my Montenegrin colleagues for their efforts to accelerate and deepen the EU related reforms, something we have been waiting for a long time when it comes to Montenegro. Today we have witnessed the success of this work, we have witnessed the achievement, and we have witnessed Montenegro moving forward finally on its journey towards the EU membership," EU enlargement commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said in a separate statement.

"Because there should be no mistake, this IGC demonstrates that the EU is ready to move ahead on enlargement, and now we will open the final phase of our negotiations with Montenegro. [...] Looking ahead, of course, now it is very important that we use the momentum that we have created, meaning that we should now start closing the chapters whenever the chapters are ready to be closed. On our side, we will for sure do everything to make it happen in the next coming months," Varhelyi said.

For his part, Montenegrin prime minister Milojko Spajic reiterated in a social media post on Wednesday the country's ambition to become the EU's 28th member state by 2028.