Montenegro must press ahead with key reforms if it is to meet its target of completing European Union accession talks by the end of 2026, the European Parliament said on Wednesday, as it adopted a resolution on the country’s progress.
The report, which assessed the European Commission’s 2023-2024 findings on Montenegro, welcomed the country’s continued alignment with EU policies and acknowledged its position as the frontrunner among Western Balkan candidate states.
The resolution stressed that authorities in Podgorica must now focus on concrete implementation of reforms in areas such as media freedom, electoral legislation, and the fight against corruption and organised crime.
“These reforms must not remain merely on paper—they must be consistently implemented in practice so that their benefits are tangible and felt by all citizens of Montenegro,” the European Parliament said in a statement.
Following the vote, Marjan Šarec, the Parliament’s standing rapporteur on Montenegro and an MEP from Slovenia’s Freedom Movement (Renew Europe), said the country had maintained strong public support for EU accession.
“Having both the governing coalition and the opposition working together to adopt the required legislation reflects a high level of awareness that the European path is the right one, with no viable alternative,” Šarec said.
He added that Montenegro’s progress so far laid a “solid foundation” to tackle the next phase of challenges, including judicial reform, combatting organised crime and corruption, and countering foreign interference.
The European Union currently counts six Western Balkan states as candidates for membership. Montenegro opened accession negotiations in 2012 and has provisionally closed only three of the 33 chapters required for full membership.