Montenegro’s place in the EU is taking shape—Commissioner Marta Kos and the accelerating road to EU membership

Marta Kos is the European Commission’s Commissioner for Enlargement — the most senior EU official responsible for Montenegro’s accession process. Appointed in late 2024, she has made the Western Balkans a personal and institutional priority, maintaining a direct public presence via her X/Twitter account @MartaKosEU and visiting Podgorica on multiple occasions. Her public statements carry institutional weight: when the Commissioner speaks, she reflects a formal Commission assessment, not diplomatic courtesy.

In May 2026, marking 20 years since Montenegro’s independence, Kos stated directly: “Montenegro’s place in the EU is taking shape.” Speaking to European Western Balkans, she outlined specific milestones achieved — not aspirations — and described the current moment as historic. This language, from this office, has not been used about Montenegro before.

“Montenegro’s place inside the EU is now taking shape. Today, Member States decided to start drafting Montenegro’s EU Accession Treaty. This is a major step on the path to EU membership, a clear recognition of Montenegro’s progress, and an encouragement to accelerate reforms.”

— Commissioner Marta Kos (@MartaKosEU), 22 April 2026

The facts confirming this trajectory are specific and verifiable. In December 2025, Montenegro provisionally closed five negotiating chapters simultaneously — an unprecedented pace. On 26 January 2026, Chapter 32 (financial control) was closed. On 17 March 2026, Chapter 21 (trans-European networks) followed. Of the 35 chapters in scope, all 33 have been opened and 14 are now provisionally closed.

On 22 April 2026, EU member states approved the formation of an ad hoc working group to draft the Treaty of Accession itself. The group held its first session on 13 May. Treaty drafting is the final institutional stage before membership — it signals that both sides have determined the end point is no longer theoretical. And on 5 June 2026, Montenegro will host the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Tivat — the first time this summit is held on Montenegrin soil.

Beyond the formal process, Montenegro brings genuine strengths to this moment. It has used the Euro as its official currency since 2002 — monetary alignment is already a fact. Its economy has grown consistently, driven by tourism, construction, and foreign direct investment. The country’s legal framework has been systematically harmonised with EU standards across chapter after chapter. Rule-of-law reforms, though still a work in progress, are proceeding under active Commission monitoring — with Chapters 23 and 24 serving as benchmarks that cannot be closed until the full picture meets EU standards.

For investors, the picture is coherent: a small, stable, Euro-using economy in the final stretch of a legal and institutional transformation that will, upon completion, make it indistinguishable in regulatory terms from any existing EU member state. The structural parallel with Central and Eastern European markets in the late 1990s — markets that re-rated significantly at and after accession — is hard to ignore.