EU cautions timeline on Montenegro accession negotiations - EXCLUSIVE

The creation of the Ad Hoc Working Party is a milestone as it marks the beginning of the drafting of Montenegro’s accession treaty, i.e., a proof that the country comes much closer to the EU.

This was said by the source in the Council of the European Union in a statement to CE Report.

However, the source added, a bit of caution here in terms of timeline.

"Experience has shown that similar AHWPs take quite some time (roughly 6 to 12 months) to deal with technical adaptations to the acquis for the candidate countries (extremely demanding and complex technical/legal work) before starting the real drafting of the Treaty," the statement reads.

Therefore, the source noted, we cannot predict how long this whole work will take due to its extremely demanding and legally complex nature.

"Of course, more progress has been achieved by Montenegro since then (e.g., closure of 10 additional chapters bringing their total number to 16), but this position remains valid, including on the challenges that remain to be addressed by the country," the source concluded.

Photo: AI

This interview was prepared by Julian Müller