Montenegro has set a target of joining the European Union by 2028 as Brussels authorised a technical step to start drafting an accession treaty. EU ambassadors approved the creation of a working group to prepare the final treaty text, a move that signals political intent even though key reforms remain unfinished. Podgorica has provisionally closed a string of negotiating chapters this year but still faces the hardest ones on the rule of law and security. The treaty work will focus on detailed transition rules and legal clauses that carry large financial consequences for Montenegro.

What happened

EU ambassadors agreed to set up a working group inside the Council of Ministers to draft Montenegro's accession treaty. The decision was described in Brussels as mainly technical. Still, diplomats see it as a signal that member states accept Montenegro as a future EU member.

Podgorica has pushed hard to reach this point. Officials in Montenegro have publicly said they want membership by 2028. That target frames the diplomatic sprint in Brussels and the accelerated negotiating calendar at home.

At the same time, EU officials and Montenegrin ministers stress that closing negotiation chapters and ironing out detailed treaty text are two different tasks. The drafting group will begin its full work only once most of the 33 accession chapters are provisionally closed. Until then, it will remain largely dormant.

Where Montenegro stands on the chapters

The European Commission and Montenegrin leaders have recorded tangible progress this year. At the 24th Accession Conference on 16 December, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, announced the provisional closure of several chapters including company law, free movement of capital and agriculture.

That brought the country to a point where Brussels officials say it has cleared a big portion of the acquis.

Officials note, however, that the most politically and technically difficult areas remain open. Chapters covering the judiciary, fundamental rights, freedom and security, and the fight against corruption and organised crime are still unresolved. Those areas are often the final obstacles in accession talks because they require deep institutional reforms and robust implementation mechanisms.

Montenegro closed a number of chapters in 2025, including public procurement earlier in the year. Yet European officials caution that finishing the remainder within a single calendar year will be highly demanding. For previous accessions, the treaty-drafting phase required concentrated legal work and intense negotiation over transition arrangements.

What the working group will do

Once chapters are closed, the working group will draft the accession treaty text. That involves translating policy alignments into legal clauses. It also means negotiating time-limited derogations and transition periods for when EU rules become enforceable in Montenegro.

Mastheads

Transition clauses matter for the state budget and business sectors. Officials say discussions will cover areas such as agricultural rules, phytosanitary standards, freedom of movement and property purchase rights. The last of those touches on revenue flows and investment rules that can amount to millions of euros in compliance costs or compensation.

Diplomatic practice suggests much of the treaty’s text will follow precedents. A diplomat involved in past accessions noted that roughly 80 to 85 percent of the document often mirrors earlier treaties. The remaining sections, however, contain country-specific arrangements that shape practical costs and timelines.

Why finance teams are paying attention

For ministries of finance and businesses, the treaty phase is where abstract reforms become concrete obligations. Time-limited derogations set the dates when new rules apply. Those dates affect fiscal planning, tax regimes and compliance spending.

Agriculture and fisheries are cases in point. Provisionally closing those chapters means Brussels and Podgorica will negotiate when EU subsidies, quotas and safety standards take effect. That has direct implications for state aid budgets and sector investment plans.

Freedom of movement and property purchase rules will also be negotiated. Those rules can reshape real estate markets and foreign investment flows. Small states often seek transitional protections to shield sensitive local sectors. The size of any carve-outs and their duration determine how quickly external capital and consumers can affect domestic prices.

Officials in Brussels repeatedly flag the rule-of-law chapters as the toughest. Building an independent judiciary and effective anti-corruption institutions takes time and visible results. Montenegro will need to show sustained implementation, not only legal alignment on paper.

Political divisions inside Montenegro add another layer of risk. Analysts say nationalist currents and competing domestic interests can slow reform delivery. Those dynamics matter for investors and lenders because unclear governance raises political risk premiums and can increase borrowing costs.

Past enlargements show the treaty stage can be compressed if technical work is already largely done. In Croatia’s accession, a concentrated five-month period of legal fine-tuning produced a treaty that served as a template. EU negotiators expect many standard clauses to recur, which can speed the process.

But the remaining bespoke provisions are where negotiations get hardest. They determine how much time a new member has to adopt complex EU rules and how much financial support or transitional relief is provided. Those decisions carry direct fiscal and regulatory consequences.

Montenegro’s 2028 target shapes the political timetable. If most chapters are provisionally closed soon, the working group will move into daily sessions of legal drafting and sealing compromises. That phase is lawyer-heavy and requires sustained political backing from EU capitals.

Member states will need to agree on the final treaty text and any transitional measures. For a small state, the bargaining points often centre on the length of transition periods and specific sectoral exceptions. Each concession has a price tag, whether in deferred compliance costs or budgeted aid.

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Montenegro's 2028 target now frames treaty negotiations and will determine transition dates and fiscal costs.

This article was created with AI assistance.