Six seats are waiting for Montenegro.
This was confirmed to TVCG in Brussels, from which they say that our country is definitely entering the final phase.
The EU, as they say, will be with us in overcoming the last obstacles of the enlargement process, but they call for caution.
Montenegro is well on its way to implementing reforms – many chapters have been closed and the first steps of the accession agreement are being prepared,” the chairman of the EP foreign policy committee, David McAllister, told TVCG, with the expectation that in the coming years, the EU will welcome Montenegro as its 28th member.
Not wanting to bid on the dates when this could happen, McClister says that the country will join the EU when it is 100 percent ready, that is, when all 27 member states agree on it.
“We are definitely entering the final phase of the accession process. The European Union will continue to support the Montenegrin government in these last meters and overcoming the last obstacles of the enlargement process,” said McAllister.
And the speed at the end of the process should be accompanied, as he says, by increased caution.
“We have to be very precise, because in the end we need to avoid unnecessary mistakes on the last steps of this long road that Montenegro has already traveled. Here in the European Parliament, overcoming party lines, we are looking forward to welcoming members of the European Parliament from Montenegro soon. Montenegro is a small country and six seats have already been reserved,” added McAllister.
Commenting on the German Chancellor’s statement that Montenegro is practically ready for membership, as well as various initiatives regarding enlargement, McAllister says that he welcomes the Merc initiative that positive steps in the form of gradual integration are needed before EU membership, so that citizens and businesses in the candidate countries can feel the benefits of the process, through integration into the single market, participation in European programs or the roaming as at home initiative.
“Currently, we have ten countries that, in general, have declared that they want to join the European Union. Maybe soon with Iceland we will have country number 11. But these countries are traveling at very different speeds towards EU membership. One thing is clear: Montenegro is clearly the leading candidate. And that is why I believe that Montenegro is a very different case from other countries, simply because they have progressed so well in the enlargement process,” said McAllister.
In addition, the chairman of the foreign policy committee also recalled the recent address of President Cena Gora before the parliamentarians in Strasbourg, when President Jakov Milatović said that Montenegro is extremely ambitious to meet all the necessary criteria as soon as possible.
