Predrag Zenović has been leading the Western Balkan nation of Montenegro’s accession negotiations with the European Union since December 2023. He is also a Professor of Political Science at the University of Donja Gorica in Podgorica, Montenegro. Mr Zenović attended the Budapest Balkans Forum 2026 hosted by the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs in Budapest, Hungary, as a distinguished guest, where he was gracious enough to give an exclusive interview to Hungarian Conservative.
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At the Budapest Balkans Forum 2026, most people had the consensus that Montenegro is the closest to EU accession in the Western Balkans region. Do you agree with that assessment, that among all these candidate countries—Albania, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina—Montenegro is the furthest in the accession process?
Absolutely. And I don’t think it is a matter of opinion. But rather, a very clear data- and fact-based truth. The accession process has many stages. According to the new methodology, of course, you have this very important step, which is IBAR, the Interim Benchmark Assessment Report. And none of the candidate countries, apart from Montenegro, has done it. If we take this into account, together with the 13 closed chapters—and indeed closing a chapter is a task of a specific nature, of a specific difficulty. So, these things, together with the common foreign security policy of the European Union with which Montenegro is fully aligned, together with the rule of law reports that Montenegro is being scrutinized by, together with other Member States, all of these elements tell us that Montenegro is significantly ahead of all candidate countries with very concrete and defined steps in the negotiations.
How were you able to get so far ahead of the other countries in the region?
Montenegro has been negotiating for a long time. So all these years have helped Montenegro to make an adequate structure to initiate very important processes. But I would say that the intensification in certain periods was more important than the time itself. Because time is passing, but if you don’t have a very clear focus, then things can get out of your hands very easily. So I think in the last three years, the new government has managed to prioritize negotiations absolutely and to completely focus all the strength of the administrative bases on the negotiating structure, completely focused on closing negotiating chapters by 2026 and achieving something which is already the popular and consensual slogan of Montenegro, ‘28 by 28’, to be the 28th country of the EU by 2028.
Would you take 29 by 28 if Ukraine were to join before you? Because I know that the EU is pushing for that. Or would that be something you would object to, an accelerated process for Ukraine?
You know, I told you Montenegro started this whole story, this long European journey in 2012. That’s the year when we started negotiations. And many methodologies have since changed. We were accepting them. We were quite understanding of the fatigue that happened after 2010 and 2024, this big enlargement, together with later on Bulgaria, Romania and then Croatia. And then we realized that we also sort of lost a chance. But now, when the momentum is regained, we really think the merit-based approach is the optimal one. That’s the one that should be followed because it allows the country to reform, to stabilize, to democratize, to Europeanize, and to accept a very broad and complex European key. At the same time, we have supported Ukraine after the war of aggression of Russia, in many ways, diplomatically, politically, in a humanitarian sense, and in a military sense also.
This question that you just posed to me is a question for the Member States. The Member States need to decide how they interpret the idea of merit-based accession, how they will approach the enlargement from a political point of view, on a technical, expert level, and on the level of the harmonization of the law. We simply know that Montenegro is absolutely the frontrunner. And as I said, together with the foreign policy, which we have completely aligned with, the high level of rule of law reforms, we believe Montenegro should be the next country to join the EU.
Your Serbian colleague, Mr Starović, was very clear during your panel discussion that the number one reason Serbia wants to join the European Union is what he called the four freedoms: freedom of movement of people, goods, services, and capital. Is it the same case for Montenegro? Is this the main reason why Montenegro is eager to join?
I would say that economic reasons and prosperity reasons are only part of the explanation why 80 per cent of Montenegrins support the accession of Montenegro to the EU. I believe Montenegro, as a plural, rather small Mediterranean country, wants to belong to a community of values, principles and rules. And I think this is the main impetus leading Montenegro’s citizens and political elites towards membership in the EU. But of course, prosperity, economic growth, and a better standard of living are also something that most people want to see in their lives. So, as much as this idea of European integration can be reflected in the everyday life of the common citizens of Montenegro, this whole project will have more chances to succeed.
News just broke that the Chairman of the European Integration Committee in Montenegro has just resigned over a bill, I believe, related to national security. I’m not familiar with Montenegrin domestic politics. Can you please enlighten our readers and me on this situation?
We are in a very particular moment of the accession to the EU, and also regarding the harmonization of the laws. There are two laws related to this: the law on the national security agency, which you mentioned, and the law on internal affairs. The amendments to these laws have been consulted with the European Commission, which indicated that these laws are not fully harmonized with GDPR.
While the rest of their scrutiny was positive, without any further comments, for the opposition position, this was not enough. They used this as a sort of reason to step out of many of the important parliamentary bodies. I think it would be very important that the cooperation between the majority and the opposition in the parliament resumes, we simply need to take both elements on board. This needs to be a cross-party, consensual project of Montenegrin political elites and citizens. As a chief negotiator for Montenegro, I hope that the dialogue between these political parties will intensify in the coming days so that they can overcome the differences and find common ground on everything that took place in the last two weeks. And the regular parliamentary life, in which, of course, you have ruling majority parties and the opposition parties, will resume as soon as possible.
What is Hungary’s role in the Western Balkan EU accession? When Hungary occupied the rotating presidency of the EU Council, it made the Western Balkan enlargement one of its key agenda points. Has Hungary been a great help to Montenegro and the rest of the region in the accession process?
Hungary is truly dedicated to enlargement on a political level, in a technical operational level, at all levels and in all means. Especially when it comes to the Western Balkans, Hungary has done a lot.
I can see it from the point of view of Montenegro, how involved Hungary was. We used your presidency to achieve certain goals and targets in the negotiations, namely to provisionally close three negotiating chapters. But even beyond that, the cooperation is continuous. We also have colleagues from your ministries working with us in the Ministry of European Affairs and in the Ministry of Human Rights. We have a very strong exchange on a technical level between Hungary and Montenegro. Together with countries such as Slovenia, Italy, and Croatia—all these true friends of the Western Balkans—the role of Hungary can indeed be very important for the integration of the Western Balkans into the EU.
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