BRUSSELS – At the Intergovernmental Conference between Montenegro and the European Union held on 17 March in Brussels, Montenegro closed negotiating Chapter 21 (Trans-European Networks). The country has opened all 33 negotiating chapters in its EU accession negotiations.
With the provisional closure agreed yesterday, a total of fourteen of these chapters have now been provisionally closed, the European Commission stated.
According to the negotiating principles endorsed by the Accession Conference, agreements reached in the course of negotiations on specific chapters may not be considered as final until an overall agreement has been reached for all chapters.
This provisional closure follows less than two months after the previous accession conference on 26 January 2026, which provisionally closed chapter 32 on financial control. Monitoring of progress in the alignment with and implementation of the EU acquis will continue throughout the negotiations.
In a reaction to the closure of Chapter 21, Marilena Raouna, Deputy Minister for European affairs of the Republic of Cyprus, on behalf of the Cyprus presidency of the Council of the EU, stated that “in the current geopolitical context, enlargement is more than ever a geostrategic investment in peace, security, stability, and prosperity”.
“I am delighted to see another negotiating chapter with Montenegro being closed today, in the second Intergovernmental Conference for Montenegro under the Cyprus presidency, bringing their total number to 14. Montenegro remains a frontrunner in the enlargement process and today’s progress confirms the strong momentum of its accession negotiations, which is based on its own merits,” Raouna noted.
Marta Kos, EU Commissioner for Enlargement, remarked that “Montenegro is the most advanced candidate country on the road to the EU”.
“Today we closed another negotiation chapter, bringing the total to 14. But much work still lies ahead. Now is the moment to keep up the pace of reforms, with a strong focus on the rule of law”, Kos stressed.
Montenegrin Minister of European Integration Maida Gorčević said that she expects “two more intergovernmental Ccnferences to take place during the Cyprus presidency of the Council of the EU”.
“We will demonstrate Montenegro’s readiness not only to meet its obligations but also to move closer to the ultimate goal of getting full EU membership by 2028”, Gorčević told the Montenegrin media outlets.
