Key facts
- Montenegro supports new EU rule-of-law safeguards for future member states.
- Safeguards must be based on objective criteria and not create a second tier of membership.
- Montenegro aims to become the 28th EU member state in 2028.
- The country argues that potential breaches must be assessed case-by-case against objective criteria.
- Montenegro warns against pre-emptively curtailing voting rights, deeming it legally dubious.
Montenegro's ambassador to the European Union, Petar Marković, has stated that his country supports the introduction of new rule-of-law safeguards for future EU member states. However, he emphasized that these safeguards must be based on objective criteria and should not lead to the creation of a second tier of membership or curb voting rights.
Marković explained that Montenegro, which is currently the most advanced candidate country with a target accession year of 2028, already meets certain EU standards according to the European Commission. He argued that any assessment of backsliding must be done on a case-by-case basis against objective criteria, and that such measures should be agreed upon before membership begins.
He warned that using transitional periods to pre-emptively curtail a new member's voting rights would be politically and legally questionable, effectively relegating a new state to second-class status. The ambassador also acknowledged that accepting new safeguards could help smooth the ratification process, especially as some founding EU member states grow more skeptical of enlargement.
Regarding proposals for 'gradual integration,' pushed by France and Germany, Marković welcomed the renewed focus on enlargement but suggested that changing the accession methodology at this late stage would be unfair to Montenegro, which has been working intensively for 14 years. He proposed that discussions on new methodologies should primarily concern candidate countries for whom the current system has not been effective.