The EU and Montenegro have provisionally closed three more chapters in Montenegro’s accession negotiations, covering economic and monetary policy, statistics, and social policy and employment.
The decision was taken at the second Intergovernmental Conference for Montenegro held under the Irish presidency of the Council of the EU, the Council informed on Tuesday.
Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence, stated that the meeting provisionally closed three negotiating chapters and brought the total number provisionally closed to 21.
“Enlargement is a geopolitical necessity for the EU and remains a top priority of the Irish presidency,” Byrne said.
The latest provisional closures follow a previous accession conference on 14 July 2026, when talks on competition policy and the customs union were provisionally closed.
What “provisionally closed” means
Montenegro has opened all 33 negotiating chapters in its EU accession talks, with 21 now provisionally closed after the latest agreement, new figures published by the Council of the EU show.
Provisional closure means negotiators have reached agreement on those areas for now, but nothing is treated as final until an overall agreement is reached across all chapters.
Progress in aligning with and implementing the EU’s acquis — the body of EU laws and rules candidate countries must adopt — will continue to be monitored during the negotiations.
