The only real candidate in the Balkans
According to a draft of a European Commission document, whose publication has been postponed several times (first from October 2025 to the end of the year, and then to spring 2026), the EU enlargement process is in a state of stagnation for most candidate countries.
The report assesses the candidate countries:
- Montenegro is the absolute leader of the process. The country has opened all negotiation chapters and has so far successfully closed 14 of them. The main challenge for Podgorica now is to meet the strict criteria for closing the remaining 19 chapters.
- Albania has made some progress by opening all negotiation chapters last year, but has not yet managed to close a single one.
- Serbia has stalled: no new chapters have been opened for more than four years due to problems with the rule of law, relations with Russia, and the unresolved dialogue with Kosovo.
- North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina remain blocked due to internal political disagreements and protracted disputes with neighboring countries.
The document emphasizes that Montenegro’s integration — a country with a population of just over 600,000 — poses no serious financial or institutional challenges for the European Union. Moreover, its accession is critically necessary for Brussels itself in order to prove the viability of the enlargement process and not lose the trust of citizens of European countries.
Accession Treaty
In parallel with the European Commission’s assessments, the European Council has launched work on a draft Accession Treaty for Montenegro to the EU (Accession Treaty). The creation of a dedicated working group had long been blocked by France, Germany, and the Netherlands, which insisted that before admitting new members the EU must carry out internal reforms (for example, revise individual countries’ veto rights). In the end, a consensus was reached.