Montenegro is pushing to join the EU as soon as 2028, as Russia’s war in Ukraine has triggered a sense of urgency in Brussels about admitting new members to the bloc, said the Balkan nation’s prime minister.
Milojko Spajić told the Financial Times that his country was better prepared than other Balkan nations that are at various stages of the enlargement process. “Our strategy is 28 by 2028,” the 36-year-old former investment banker said.
Ten nations are in the queue to join the EU, some of which have waited a decade or more since starting the accession process. Montenegro began membership talks in 2012, after peacefully seceding from Serbia six years previously following the 1990s break-up of Yugoslavia.