Country on track to join EU 

TIVAT (AP):

Montenegro is on track to become a member of the European Union by 2028, the bloc’s leaders and the Balkan country’s president said yesterday following a summit focused on expanding the EU to include other countries in the region.

Leaders from across the EU were joined by their western Balkan counterparts in Montenegro’s Adriatic Sea coastal town of Tivat, where they discussed the bloc’s enlargement into a region seen as a key area in countering security and economic threats posed by Russia and China.

The summit brought together leaders including President Emmanuel Macron of France and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as well as the heads of Balkan candidate countries.

High on the agenda was Montenegro’s EU accession, a process that is approaching its final stages and which von der Leyen said Friday was “within reach”.

“If I had to sum up this summit in two words, they would be determination and confidence,” von der Leyen told a news conference. “Confidence that our union will grow in the years ahead.”

The EU has already formed a working group to draft an accession treaty for Montenegro, whose president, Jakov Milatovic, said the summit had given him “even greater confidence” that his country will fulfil its aim of joining the EU by 2028.

“This goal is realistic and achievable. It is strongly supported by all our European partners,” Milatovic said.

Adding members to the EU, which can bring the bloc more single market economic benefits and stronger security capabilities, has gained urgency in recent years as the continent faces a series of challenges, such as lopsided trade with China, migration pressures, the war in Ukraine and increasing hybrid threats from Russia.

With the Trump administration viewed as less committed to its NATO allies, EU countries have also pushed to boost their military capabilities to ward off future threats without the potential backing of the US.

Against that backdrop, von der Leyen yesterday described EU expansion into the western Balkans as “a geostrategic imperative”, but that candidate nations are still expected to carry out reforms, such as tackling corruption and shoring up democratic institutions, steps viewed as benefiting both the candidate nations and the EU as a whole.

Yet, the lengthy process of carrying out such reforms and advancing the process of membership has frustrated some candidate countries, leading to some calls to find ways to accelerate the procedure.

Von der Leyen also emphasised that EU membership would be “merits-based, but merits-based does not mean slow, it means fair and predictable’’. She added that the bloc seeks to “reward reforms with real integration”.

European Council President Antonio Costa, who hosted the Tivat summit, said the EU was “considering new ideas to streamline and accelerate the process” to increase trust in the EU and “increase the motivation of the western Balkan partners.”

Montenegro, a small, mountainous country that was once a part of Yugoslavia and which this week marked the 20th anniversary of its independence from a union with neighbouring Serbia, is considered the front-runner among the region’s other candidate countries of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and North Macedonia.

After joining NATO in 2017, the country of 623,000 people is now set on fulfilling its ambitious agenda of becoming the EU’s 28th member. The motto “28 by 28” has even been inscribed on one of the planes of Montenegro’s national airline.

EU candidate countries must bring their laws into line in 35 policy areas or “chapters”, ranging from justice standards to farm and fishing rules. All 27 EU members must agree before each chapter can be opened, and then again for it to be closed.

Ukraine and Moldova are also among about 10 countries aspiring to join the bloc, while Iceland will hold a referendum in August on whether to apply.

Serbia’s populist leader, Aleksandar Vucic, said he had high hopes for the summit and accession paths for Balkan countries after recently meeting with EU leaders like Merz and Macron.

“We will see a lot of progress of western Balkan countries in the future. Of course, we need to do a lot of reforms,” he said. “We are on our EU path.”