EU leaders at Tivat summit affirm Montenegro could join the bloc by 2028
At the EU–Western Balkans summit in Tivat, European Council President António Costa, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Montenegrin President Jakov Milatović affirmed that Montenegro's accession to the EU by 2028 is a "realistic and achievable" goal. Von der Leyen praised "impressive" reforms and urged Podgorica to close all remaining negotiating chapters and clusters by year's end, noting EU ambassadors recently approved drafting an accession treaty — the first such step since Croatia in 2013. French President Emmanuel Macron pledged support for Montenegro's bid. Separately, several journalists publicly returned awards from the Montenegrin Journalists' Association in protest over its backing of RTCG Council head Veselin Drljević, and businessman Aco Đukanović, brother of former leader Milo Đukanović, received court permission to temporarily leave the country.
Why it matters
Montenegro, the smallest and most advanced EU candidate, has been negotiating membership since 2012, and a 2028 target would make it the first new member since Croatia in 2013 — a tangible signal that EU enlargement remains alive amid the bloc's renewed strategic focus on the Western Balkans after Russia's war in Ukraine. Hosting the summit and securing an accession-treaty drafting step underscores how Podgorica has reaccelerated reforms since the 2023 political shift away from the long-dominant DPS.
🔎 Ground signal
Domestically, the RTCG public-broadcaster governance dispute is bubbling up: journalists returning past awards over the association's support for Council head Drljević points to ongoing tensions over media independence, a key rule-of-law benchmark for EU accession.