Montenegro–EU Intergovernmental Conference Not Held This Month — ‘Green Light’ for Closing New Chapters Missing

The intergovernmental conference between Montenegro and the European Union, at which Podgorica had hoped to close new accession negotiation chapters, will not be held this month, the RTCG portal reported. The meeting had been planned on the margins of the EU General Affairs Council session.

An EU official told the portal that intensive work is underway for member states to approve the closure of additional chapters, but the procedure was not completed in time. “It is a matter of time, nothing else,” the official said, confirming that more than one member state has yet to give the green light. According to him, the reasons are mostly technical, as internal procedures in those countries have not yet been completed.

European Affairs Minister Maida Gorčević had announced on September 4 in Dublin that Montenegro had submitted to the European Commission its negotiating positions for nine chapters, while positions for the other six open chapters are expected to be submitted by the end of September.

The next intergovernmental conference could be held in mid-October in Luxembourg. The last one took place on July 14 in Brussels, when chapters 8 (competition) and 29 (customs union) were provisionally closed, bringing the number of provisionally closed chapters to 18 out of 33. The Montenegrin government’s plan is for the remaining 15 chapters to be closed by the end of the year.

Source: Vijesti