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Montenegro blocked 1 chapter, Albania opens one cluster

by AI | 13.Dec 2024 | Europe in brief AI

Montenegro will close three chapters next week, while Croatia is blocking one. Albania is also making progress and opening one negotiation cluster. Serbia is still without progress in accession negotiations.

In the picture, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos at the hearing in the European Parliament. Photo: Thierry Monasse/STA

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BRUSSELS – The ambassadors of EU member states approved the closure of three negotiating chapters with Montenegro on Friday evening, according to diplomatic sources, while a fourth which the country was ready to close will not be closed due to Croatia’s opposition.

The intergovernmental accession conference, at which Montenegro will close these three chapters – Intellectual Property Rights, Information Society and Media, and Business and Industrial Policy – will be held on Monday, December 16.

Montenegro was technically ready to close four chapters, but Croatia was against closing the chapter on Foreign, Security, and Defense Policy.

Last month, Croatia sent a non-paper (informal diplomatic document) to Montenegro requesting the resolution of several outstanding issues affecting the mutual relations between the two countries.

According to diplomatic sources, the document states that the two countries should address issues concerning the ownership of the training ship “Jadran,” mutual delimitation, prosecution of war crimes, finding missing persons, and the naming of a city pool in Kotor named after former water polo player Zoran Gopčević, whom Croatia claims was a guard at the “Morinj” camp.

The new methodology for accession negotiations, adopted at the beginning of 2020, provides that instead of individual chapters, multiple interconnected chapters in six clusters, or six thematic units, are opened, while for chapter closures, they are still closed individually.

The Hungarian presidency is pushing hard to open cluster 3 with Serbia, for which the country is assessed to be technically ready by the Commission, but there is still no consensus among member states.

Serbia was not on the agenda of the Committee of Permanent Representatives on Friday as eight countries still oppose opening that cluster. These include Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, the Netherlands, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Ambassadors also reached an agreement to open one cluster with Albania, cluster 6, which will open on Tuesday, December 17.

Cluster 6 covers two chapters: External Relations and Foreign, Security, and Defense Policy. (December 13, 2024.)

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