The European Union should stick to free trade and freedom of movement and not become a superstate, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on October 31 at a Montenegrin community event in Zagreb.
“In my firm conviction and based on my observations, the European Union is exceeding the limits of what its structure can sustain. It should stick to the purposes for which it was primarily conceived and established: free trade, freedom of movement, and a certain degree of harmonisation. But a superstate? No,” Milanovic said, according to a statement from his office.
The remarks add to a long record of criticism of Brussels from Milanovic, a former Social Democrat prime minister who won a landslide second term in January 2025 and who has repeatedly clashed with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s centre-right government over foreign and defence policy. They come as Montenegro, the frontrunner among the Western Balkan candidates, aims to sign its accession treaty by summer 2027 and join the EU in 2028, a timetable that Zagreb’s own conditions for Podgorica could complicate.
Milanovic spoke at the St Luke’s Day Gatherings (Lucindanski susreti), the central event of the Montenegrin community in Croatia. He attended alongside Montenegrin President Jakov Milatovic, who was in Croatia on a working visit.
“Montenegro is a candidate for European Union membership. It is moving towards the EU, and may it join. As far as I am concerned, it is more than welcome,” he said.
Milanovic said in May 2025 that no new members would join the EU apart from perhaps Montenegro, describing enlargement pledges to the Western Balkans as “false promises” made to extract political concessions. Two months later he said that putting Ukraine’s EU accession bid ahead of Montenegro and North Macedonia would be “an insult” to those countries, calling Ukraine “a country at war, without a clearly defined territory, that is unable to finance itself”.
He has argued that the EU is weaker than global players and that Croatia should look after its own interests within the bloc. He has also opposed Croatia’s participation in Nato’s military assistance mission for Ukraine and said the war would be settled between Washington and Moscow rather than in Europe, a stance critics at home describe as soft on Russia.
As commander-in-chief, Milanovic this year ruled out military cooperation with Israel over its conduct in Gaza and ordered the army not to march in France’s Bastille Day parade, both moves that put him at odds with the government.
Relations between Zagreb and Podgorica remain strained by disputes left over from the 1990s wars. Croatia circulated an informal document to EU member states in October setting out conditions for Montenegro’s accession, including compensation for Croatian citizens held at the Morinj camp and the return of the training ship Jadran. Milanovic himself caused a stir in Montenegro in 2023 when he urged its politicians to bring the pro-Serb For the Future of Montenegro coalition into government.
Speaking 20 years after Montenegro’s independence referendum, he said the vote had opened divisions in Montenegrin society that were not easy to heal. “The greatest asset you have is your own state. Montenegro has achieved statehood, and everything else consists of smaller or larger developments that do not stand in the way of Montenegro becoming a successful, well-governed, and relatively prosperous country,” he said.
Milatovic said Montenegro was resolutely continuing along its European path and that Croatia, “as our neighbouring country and a member of the European Union, holds a special place in this process”.
“It is our shared responsibility to build good-neighbourly relations, foster open dialogue, overcome current challenges, and strengthen mutual trust,” Milatovic said.