On 27 June, the 23rd meeting of the Accession Conference with Montenegro resulted in the provisional closure of accession negotiations for Chapter 5, which pertains to public procurement. The European Union may consider revisiting this chapter at an appropriate time in the future.
This closure follows the previous meeting of the Accession Conference with Montenegro, held on 16 December 2024, during which Chapters 7 (intellectual property), 10 (information society and media), and 20 (enterprise and industrial policy) were also provisionally closed. Continued monitoring of Montenegro’s progress in aligning with and implementing the EU acquis will take place throughout the ongoing negotiations.
“The EU welcomes Montenegro’s progress in closing chapter 5 on public procurement. This marks the seventh negotiating chapter closed – a meaningful step forward on Montenegro’s path towards European integration,” said Adam Szłapka, Minister for European Affairs of Poland, on behalf of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU.
To date, Montenegro has opened a total of 33 negotiating chapters in its EU accession process, and today’s agreement marks the provisional closure of seven of these chapters. Following the negotiating principles endorsed by the Accession Conference, any agreements reached in the negotiations regarding specific chapters—whether partial or complete—will not be considered final until an overall agreement has been achieved for all chapters.
The European Union delegation was led by Ambassador Agnieszka Bartol, Permanent Representative of Poland to the EU, representing the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The delegation also included Gert Jan Koopman, the Director General for Enlargement and the Eastern Neighbourhood. Milojko Spajić, Prime Minister of Montenegro, led the Montenegrin delegation.
