Montenegro’s Prime Minister Milojko Spajic, Denmark’s Minister for European Affairs Marie Bjerre and European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos in Brussels, December 16, 2025. Photo: EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET.
Montenegro has taken another step towards membership of the European Union as it provisionally closed another five chapters in the negotiating process ahead of an EU-Western Balkans leaders’ summit on Wednesday.
“The EU welcomes Montenegro’s progress in closing five additional chapters today. This means that in total 12 negotiating chapters have already been closed – a significant step forward on the country’s path towards European integration,” Marie Bjerre, Minister for European Affairs of Denmark, which holds the rotating EU Presidency, said.
Milojko Spajic, Montenegro’s Prime Minister, said that the closure was “concrete motivation for both the Council and us to enter the final phase of EU integration with all our strength”.
Montenegro closed chapters on the right of establishment and freedom to provide services, free movement of capital, company law, agriculture and rural development and fisheries.
Marta Kos, European Commissioner for Enlargement, praised Podgorica and called for a full focus on the period ahead, noting that Montenegro “wants to conclude negotiations by the end of 2026.
“It is decisively accelerating its road to the EU. To cross the finish line, reforms to support independence of courts, anti-corruption measures and free media must now intensify,” Kos posted on X.
Montenegro’s President, Jakov Milatovic, who will attend Wednesday’s summit, called for more national unity in the period ahead. “In order to join the EU, we must behave and work in a European way every day,” Milatovic said in Brussels.
Kosovo, which applied for EU candidate country status in December 2022, has not had its application reviewed yet by Brussels.
But Vjosa Osmani, Kosovo’s President, said after a meeting with the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, that she hopes for candidate status soon.
The summit comes one day after the EU decided to formally lift some measures imposed on Kosovo in 2023 over rising tensions in mainly Serb northern municipalities after the authorities attempted to install ethnic Albanian mayors.
Kosovo’s Acting Deputy Prime Minister, Besnik Bislimi, announced on Tuesday that 34 million euros’ worth of projects have been restored.
Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vucic, said his country will not attend the event in Brussels. “For the first time in 13 or 14 years, neither I nor anyone else will attend that intergovernmental conference,” Vucic told Serbia’s public broadcaster RTS.
He added that he was busy “protecting Serbia and its interests.
“I am doing this for the citizens of Serbia, even though I know it will face criticism from many in Brussels,” he said, adding that it was more important to ensure the survival of the Serbian oil company NIS, which is under US sanctions due to its part-Russian ownership.
Serbia “will remain on the European path as long as I am president,” he added
Serbia has not opened a new negotiation cluster in four years, and no new steps will be taken this year. The latest European Commission progress report warned that “the actual pace of implementation of reforms [in Serbia] has slowed down significantly”.