The European Union and Montenegro have agreed to provisionally close five negotiating chapters, taking the total number of chapters provisionally closed to twelve, EU institutions said after an accession conference in Brussels on 16 December.
At the 24th meeting of the Accession Conference with Montenegro, the parties provisionally closed Chapter 3 (right of establishment and freedom to provide services), Chapter 4 (free movement of capital), Chapter 6 (company law), Chapter 11 (agriculture and rural development) and Chapter 13 (fisheries). The EU delegation was led by Marie Bjerre, Denmark’s minister for European affairs, representing the Danish presidency of the Council of the EU, with the participation of enlargement commissioner Marta Kos.
In the Council’s account of the meeting, Bjerre said the EU welcomed Montenegro’s progress and noted that twelve chapters had now been provisionally closed. The Council added that the EU could return to the chapters “at an appropriate moment” if necessary, and that monitoring of alignment with, and implementation of, EU law would continue throughout the negotiations.
Montenegro applied for EU membership in December 2008 and received candidate status in December 2010. Accession negotiations opened in June 2012. The country has opened all 33 chapters used in its negotiating framework, according to the Council.
Provisional closure is a milestone rather than an endpoint. Under the negotiating principles used in enlargement, agreements reached on individual chapters are not treated as final until an overall agreement is reached across the full set of chapters and an accession treaty is concluded and ratified. Chapters can be reopened if implementation falls short or if EU legislation changes in ways that require additional alignment.
The five chapters closed on Tuesday span the internal market and agriculture and fisheries. Chapters 3, 4 and 6 cover core elements of the single market: the ability of companies and professionals to establish and provide services across borders, rules governing capital movements, and the legal framework for company operations. Chapters 11 and 13 cover areas governed by extensive EU rules, reflecting the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy, including rural development measures, food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary controls, and rules on fisheries management, traceability and inspection.
The European Commission’s “state of play” factsheet, updated on 16 December, lists Montenegro as having provisionally closed twelve chapters: 3, 4, 5 (public procurement), 6, 7 (intellectual property law), 10 (information society and media), 11, 13, 20 (enterprise and industrial policy), 25 (science and research), 26 (education and culture) and 30 (external relations). Chapter 5 had been provisionally closed at the previous accession conference on 27 June.
Accession conferences are intergovernmental meetings between EU member state representatives and the candidate country, where the parties agree common positions and assess whether closing benchmarks have been met. The Commission’s accession factsheet notes that once all chapters are provisionally closed and the country is deemed ready, EU member states must decide unanimously on admission.
The remaining negotiating work includes areas where the EU has traditionally required sustained results over time, notably in the “fundamentals” cluster covering the judiciary, fundamental rights and justice and security. Under the revised enlargement methodology applied to Montenegro and Serbia since 2021, progress on fundamentals is intended to set the pace for the rest of the negotiations, and these chapters are opened first and closed last.
The December conference took place as the EU continues to pursue a merit-based enlargement process in the Western Balkans, while also running accession tracks for Ukraine and Moldova. In its 2025 enlargement reporting, the European Commission described Montenegro as a frontrunner and said it could conclude accession negotiations by the end of 2026 if reforms continued and benchmarks were met.
For Montenegro, the closure of chapters linked to agriculture and fisheries is tied to administrative preparation. In enlargement negotiations, the EU assesses whether a candidate has the institutions and systems needed to apply complex rules in areas such as subsidies, inspections and control regimes. The Council’s press note underlined that monitoring will continue after provisional closure.
Further decisions will depend on Montenegro meeting outstanding benchmarks and sustaining implementation, and on whether EU member states judge that conditions are in place at subsequent accession conferences, including any further chapter closures.
