EU and Montenegro provisionally close another five chapters in accession negotiations

Today, the 24^th meeting of the Accession Conference with Montenegro provisionally closed accession negotiations on chapters 3 (right of establishment and freedom to provide services), 4 (free movement of capital), 6 (company law), 11 (agriculture and rural development) and 13 (fisheries).

The EU welcomes Montenegro's progress in closing five additional chapters today. This means that in total twelve negotiating chapters have already been closed - a significant step forward on the country's path towards European integration.

Marie Bjerre, Minister for European affairs of Denmark, on behalf of the Danish presidency of the Council of the EU

The EU may, if necessary, return to these chapters at an appropriate moment.

Chapter 5 on public procurement had already been provisionally closed at a previous Accession Conference on 27 June 2025. Monitoring of progress in the alignment with and implementation of the EU acquis will continue throughout the negotiations.

Montenegro has opened all 33 negotiating chapters in its EU accession negotiations. With the provisional closure agreed today, a total of twelve of these chapters have now been provisionally closed. According to the negotiating principles endorsed by the Accession Conference, agreements reached in the course of negotiations on specific chapters, even partial ones, may not be considered as final until an overall agreement has been reached for all chapters.

Background

The European Union delegation was led by Ms Marie Bjerre, Minister for European affairs of Denmark, on behalf of the Danish presidency of the Council of the EU, with the participation of Commissioner for Enlargement, Ms Marta Kos. The Montenegrin delegation was led by Mr Milojko Spajić, Prime Minister of Montenegro.

• Twenty-third meeting of the Accession Conference with Montenegro, 27 June 2025
• Council conclusions on enlargement, 17 December 2024
• Enlargement: new enlargement methodology will be applied to Montenegro and Serbia (press release, 11 May 2021)
• Montenegro (background information)
• How EU enlargement works (background information)