BRUSSELS – Montenegro is practically ready to join the European Union, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said following the two-day EU leaders’ summit in Brussels. According to him, the situation in the Western Balkans differs from that of Ukraine.
“We have been negotiating EU membership with these countries for almost 20 years, and at least one of them, Montenegro, is practically ready for accession”, the German Chancellor said.
He added that most negotiating chapters have already been completed and that Montenegro “could already enter the final phase” of the accession process.
As he noted, the key question is whether the Western Balkan countries should join the EU all at once or one by one.
“There are good reasons to argue that they should all join at the same time. But there are also good reasons to argue that they should join one after another. We will discuss this at the next meeting of the European Council. Proposals are on the table, and many colleagues are grateful that we are moving beyond the frustration we experienced last year when we held the last Western Balkans Summit here in Brussels and no one really knew what to do with the Western Balkan countries or how to move the process forward”, Merz said.
He added that he and French President Emmanuel Macron are trying to break out of this vicious circle and put forward a proposal on how progress can be made on this issue.
The European Council announced that EU leaders will hold a strategic discussion on enlargement and internal reforms at their October 2026 meeting, citing the renewed momentum in the accession process and recalling the commitments set out in the Granada Declaration.
In its conclusions adopter after the 18-19 June summit in Brussels, the European Council also welcome the EU-Western Balkans Summit held in Tivat, noting that it had contributed to the renewed momentum of the enlargement process.
