Montenegro is not preparing to enter the European Union as a junior partner. That was the clearest political message from Maida Gor\u010devi\u0107, the country\u2019s minister of European affairs, at a breakfast briefing with journalists in Brussels hosted by MEP Marjan \u0160arec (Renew, Slovenia).<\/p>\n
Against a backdrop of talk in some capitals about \u201csafeguards\u201d against democratic backsliding, delayed voting rights and even a decade or more before new members enjoy the same status as the current 27, Gor\u010devi\u0107 insisted that Podgorica wants full-fledged membership.<\/p>\n
\u201cMontenegro is very clear. We want full-fledged membership,\u201d she said. A country that has negotiated for 14 years and is \u201cdelivering more than 100 percent,\u201d she argued, \u201cneeds to be equal based on the founding treaties as well.\u201d Equality, she added later, \u201cis very important for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The remark is not a rhetorical flourish. It is Montenegro\u2019s answer to an emerging debate inside the Union: whether the next members should accept temporary or even structural limits on rights \u2013 on the budget, on enlargement, on foreign policy \u2013 so that older members can sleep more easily about \u201cbacksliding.\u201d Gor\u010devi\u0107 said her government is still waiting for the Commission\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still waiting for the proposal coming from European Commission and member states,\u201d she told the room. \u201cThe capitals didn\u2019t decide and they don\u2019t have this final proposal towards the candidate countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was equally explicit on another anxiety in some capitals: vetoes. \u201cWe are not going to use any veto or blockage in the future,\u201d she said. That, she acknowledged, is \u201calso some of the concerns coming from some of the capitals.\u201d Montenegro\u2019s pitch is that a small, predictable, already aligned country should be treated as an asset, not a risk \u2014 and that it will behave like Slovenia, Malta or the Baltics rather than as a blocker.<\/p>\n
A frontrunner that wants to finish the job<\/p>\n
\u0160arec opened by stressing the numbers that Podgorica now repeats in every capital: 18 of 33 chapters provisionally closed, an ambition to close the rest by the end of 2026, NATO membership, and full alignment with the EU\u2019s common foreign and security policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf European Union isn\u2019t present in Western Balkans, then somebody else will be or already is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gor\u010devi\u0107 added the operational detail: nine closing packages have already been sent to the Commission; the remaining six are due by the end of this month. From Montenegro\u2019s side, she said, the technical work on all remaining chapters \u2014 including the hardest ones, rule of law (23 and 24) and environment (27) \u2014 should be finished this month.<\/p>\n
That timetable is why the political argument now matters more than the next benchmark. If Podgorica delivers, the question shifts from \u201ccan they close chapters?\u201d to \u201con what terms will they join?\u201d Gor\u010devi\u0107\u2019s answer is that gradual integration and the Growth Plan are useful bridges, but they are not a substitute for membership. \u201cOur main task is\u2026 to fulfill all the criteria. So tomorrow we can be the full-fledged member with 100% rights, but with rights there are obligations, and vice versa.\u201d<\/p>\n
On backsliding specifically, she tried to turn the debate around. Montenegro, she said, wants the strongest possible rule-of-law mechanisms \u201cbecause of ourselves,\u201d not only because Brussels asks. Constitutional changes already agreed with the opposition go beyond closing benchmarks. \u201cWhatever the European Commission sends as a suggestion on the rule of law through the safeguards, we are there.\u201d What she would not accept is a second-class status written into the accession treaty as a default. Temporary restrictions tied to proven backsliding are one discussion; a 10- or 15-year waiting room for voting rights, regardless of performance, is another. Pressed on the latter, she kept returning to the founding treaties and to the logic of small states: if budget or foreign-policy decisions move to qualified majority without the current consensus culture, smaller members lose voice. Montenegro, she repeated, is not the country that will block others.<\/p>\n
The communication gap \u2013 and France<\/p>\n
The more uncomfortable part of the briefing was political, not technical. Several journalists, including this one, asked whether Podgorica has a plan to explain itself to European publics that are growing colder on enlargement \u2013 and to France in particular, where a future president could put accession to a referendum.<\/p>\n
Gor\u010devi\u0107 admitted a lag. \u201cWe were so focused on delivering that we didn\u2019t communicate all the time,\u201d she said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t that much present in the member states.\u201d That phase, she claimed, is ending. \u201cYes, we are starting the communication now. Once we have the results, once we deliver\u2026 now we are the easy case to communicate.\u201d From Montenegro\u2019s perspective, perhaps. Convincing parliaments \u2013 and, if it comes to that, French voters \u2013 is another matter.<\/p>\n
France, she said, is \u201cdefinitely one of uncertainties, not for Montenegro, but for the EU also, because you cannot predict at this moment the result of the elections.\u201d A parliamentary route with a three-fifths majority would be one strategy; a referendum would be another, \u201ccostly, not only for us\u2026 it will be costly for France organizing for one country.\u201d A small state cannot cover a nationwide French campaign alone. \u201cWe need the support not only of the funds but also of EU allies.\u201d She said Podgorica will talk to all political families, including those that have already signalled they would vote against any new member. Timing will be delicate: enlargement is not a popular campaign theme.<\/p>\n
That is the external risk. The internal one is 2027. Montenegro\u2019s next parliamentary elections are expected in June that year. Gor\u010devi\u0107 warned that an anti-EU narrative may not come first from domestic politicians but \u201cfrom abroad.\u201d Foreign information manipulation and interference (she used the Commission\u2019s acronym, FIMI) is already on the government\u2019s radar. Podgorica is talking to the Commission and to member-state allies about it. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t take for granted the communication in our own country.\u201d Seventy percent public support for membership is an asset; it is not a permanent shield.<\/p>\n
Spain\u2019s languages, and other bilateral weather<\/p>\n
Asked by EUalive whether Spain\u2019s push to make Catalan, Basque and Galician official EU languages could become an obstacle, Gor\u010devi\u0107 said she had spoken to her Spanish counterpart after the announcement. The message she brought back was that Madrid does not intend a blockage of Montenegro. He \u201cfully believes\u201d the Spanish languages can be handled before Montenegro joins, or at the same time, and that the issue \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean any kind of blockage.\u201d Unanimity is still required for new official languages; that fight, she suggested, is the EU\u2019s, not Podgorica\u2019s accession fight.<\/p>\n