Croatia removes Montenegro accession deadlines from EU conclusions
Croatia has secured changes to draft European Council conclusions on Montenegro’s EU accession, removing references to deadlines for the provisional closure of negotiating chapters, Croatian public broadcaster HRT reported Friday.
The earlier draft called for an agreement on the provisional closure of all negotiating chapters by the end of 2026, provided Montenegro implemented the necessary reforms. It also called for work on Montenegro’s accession treaty to be completed as soon as possible.
The revised text welcomes ongoing work on drafting the accession treaty and notes the intention of the Irish presidency of the Council of the EU to work toward the provisional closure of negotiating chapters, conditional on Montenegro implementing the required reforms.
Plenkovic highlights outstanding issues
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said after the first day of the European Council meeting in Brussels that Croatia continued to support EU enlargement but insisted that candidate countries must meet the required criteria.
“We amended the conclusions at our initiative, sending a realistic message to our colleagues in Montenegro that they should get down to talks with Croatia,” Plenkovic said.
He said Zagreb had raised unresolved issues with Podgorica concerning Chapter 23, which covers the judiciary and fundamental rights, and Chapter 31, dealing with foreign, security and defence policy.
Croatia sets out eight demands
Croatia has presented Montenegro with eight demands linked to the two negotiating chapters. Six concern Chapter 23, while the remaining two relate to Chapter 31.
The changes to the European Council conclusions place the focus on continued reform and progress toward accession without retaining the previous draft’s explicit year-end 2026 target for the provisional closure of all negotiating chapters.
Source:AA
