“Montenegro, if it continues to fulfill its obligations and with the support of the institutions of the European Union (EU) and member states, can reach the end of the negotiation process during the Irish presidency of the Council of the EU”, said the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos.
She told reporters before the meeting of the Council on Foreign Affairs of the Union in Luxembourg, where the Intergovernmental Conference between the EU and Montenegro, as well as conferences with Ukraine and Moldova, will be held today.
Kos said that two more negotiation chapters with Montenegro will be closed today, which will increase their total number to 16.
“That’s about half of the total work that Montenegro needs to complete,” Kos said in a statement published on the X network.
She said that she had just returned from Ireland, which will assume the next presidency of the Council of the EU, and assessed that, if the European Commission, Montenegro and the member states continue to work together to fulfill their obligations, during that presidency or at the end, it would be possible to bring the negotiations to an end.
Kos pointed out that the enlargement process is one of the most important instruments of EU foreign policy today.
“We’ve accomplished more in the last 16 or 17 months than we did in the previous 15 years,” Kos said.
She assessed that today is significant for the EU enlargement policy, reminding that Ukraine and Moldova will make the biggest step since obtaining candidate status in 2023 by opening the first cluster of negotiations for both countries.
Kos said that she expects that the remaining five clusters will be opened for those two countries during July, if they continue to meet the set conditions.
Kos, in a post on the X network, stated that today is a day for celebration, but also pointed out that she will use the opportunity to appeal to the candidate countries to continue the dynamics of the negotiations.
