While Montenegro is preparing to close five chapters on the road to the European Union this winter, Serbia has not opened any since 2021.
Serbian neighbors and former state comrades they are officially the most advanced candidate for joining the European Union, it is stated in the latest report of the European Commission. Although there were certain obstacles, which France, President Montenegro Jakov Milatović claims that they have been eliminated and that the country will close five chapters by the end of this year.
"During the previous two days I had a friendly and constructive exchange with Emmanuel Macron, after which Montenegro will close all five chapters at the next Intergovernmental Conference", announced the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, on his X account.
As things currently stand, Montenegrins can close the negotiations by the end of 2026 and enter the Union around 2028, says the EC report itself, with the condition that some key challenges in the judiciary, corruption and electoral reforms are urgently resolved, with strong support from the EU and an emphasis on merit in the process.
The chapters that should be closed in 2025 are 3 (Right of establishment and freedom to provide services), 4 (Free movement of capital) and chapter 6 (Corporate law). Although France has blocked the closure of Chapters 11 (Agriculture and Rural Development) and 13 (Fisheries), Montenegrin officials claim that the member states will still give the green light for it as well.
Prime Minister of Montenegro Milojko Spajić he responded recently to Aleksandar Vučić's comment that the Western Balkans should join the EU together.
"I agree that the EU should be the final decision for the entire Western Balkans."
However, we will be waiting for you there already from 2028 and we are rooting for you to really hurry up and speed up the other candidates from the surrounding area," wrote Milojko Spajić.
By closing these five chapters, Montenegro would enter the next year with a total of 12 closed chapters. During 2026, more than 20 chapters should then be closed, in order to meet the conditions for the country to join the Union by the end of 2028.
Serbia, on the other hand, spent the year 2025 without any movement on the road to European integration. Actually, not just 2025, but the last four years. In the entire process, it opened 22 out of 35 negotiation chapters, of which only two are temporarily closed - science and education.
The European Commission assessed that the authorities in Serbia "continued to declare EU membership as their strategic goal, but the actual pace of implementing reforms has slowed significantly." The EU report states that "Serbia should implement credible reforms in all areas", especially in the field of harmonization with the EU's foreign and security policy, referring to the sanctions that the country did not impose on Russia.
Serbia is one of the few countries in Europe (along with Turkey and Belarus) that did not join the European Union sanctions against the Russian Federation, after the Kremlin attacked Ukraine in 2022.
Big holiday discount on "Vreme" - subscriptions 25 percent cheaper until mid-January. Give it away subscription to yourself or to someone else, read what matters.
France and the United Kingdom have for the first time officially confirmed plans to deploy peacekeeping forces in Ukraine after the end of the war. However, without the deployment of American military capabilities, experts warn that the European contingent could be insufficiently effective in the event of a Russian attack
The Pentagon pizza watch, a theory that has repeatedly predicted the operations of the US government, is once again current. Does a spike in pizza orders near US administration buildings predict an attack on Iran?
Donald Trump's administration wants to exclude the state of Minnesota from the investigation after an ICE agent in Minneapolis shot and killed a woman on the street. The footage suggests it was not self-defense
"Politico" announces that the US could take control of Greenland before the November American elections or by the 4th of July
The attack on Venezuela is part of a long history of military intervention and meddling by the United States in Latin America. They are based on the so-called Monroe Doctrine
What is the real security challenge for Serbia? Most citizens know the answer at noon and midnight - it is Vučić's progressive regime
Is it possible that, after thousands of years of imperial endeavors, we are now, suddenly, so surprised by the American incursion into Venezuela, that we cannot catch our breath?
US President Donald Trump ordered a military attack on sovereign Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president Nicolas Maduro. Get ready Gustavo Petro in Colombia
Interview: Nenad Leibensperger, Person of the Year 2025.
I have no right to remain silent about injustice subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
See all
