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38 I Southeast Europe bne March 2018
COUNTRY REPORTS
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The tiny Adriatic country of Montenegro has so far opened 30 of the 35 chap- ters, and three have been provisionally closed. In December, the EU opened
two more chapters in Montenegro’s accession negotiations – on freedom of movement for workers (chapter 2) and on right of establishment and freedom to provide services (chapter 3).
Most Montenegrins would like to become part of the EU. A recent poll showed that 80.9% would vote in favour of membership of the EU if the country calls a referendum. The government in Podgorica is also keen to push the coun- try towards membership in the bloc.
A chance to catch up
Regarding the other Western Balkans countries, the Commission said they could catch up depending on their
say they expect that the solution is possible and that the country can expect to be invited to join the bloc as early as this year.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama also expects his country, a candidate since 2014, to be invited to start EU negotia- tions in 2018. “We welcome what was said to Albania in the EU strategy. Nego- tiations closer than ever,” Rama wrote on his Facebook page.
Regarding Bosnia & Herzegovina, the Commission will start preparing an opinion on the country's membership application following the receipt of comprehensive and complete answers to its questionnaire.
“Bosnia could become a candidate for accession with sustained effort and
“Most Montenegrins would like to become part of the EU”
strong political will, the implementation of sustained reforms and definitive solu- tions to disputes with neighbours.
All six countries will be assessed in a fair and objective manner on the basis of their own merits and at the speed at which they achieve progress.
The Commission underlined that it is ready to prepare recommendations to open accession negotiations with Alba- nia and Macedonia, which the report said had made significant progress on their European path, if they met the required conditions.
Implementation of judicial reforms is crucial for Albania, while Macedonia, which has been a candidate country since 2005, needs to solve the “name dispute” with Greece.
Greece objects to the use of the name Macedonia as it has a province in the north with the same name. However, both Macedonia and Greece are optimistic that the issue will be solved this year. The Macedonian authorities
engagement,” the Commission said. Bosnia hopes to finally get EU candidate status this year. The country formally applied for EU membership in February 2016 and was hoping to get candidate status in 2017. However, disagreements between the institutions of the country’s smaller entity – Republika Srpska – on the one side, and the Muslim-Croat Fed- eration and the central level authorities on the other have threatened Bosnia’s European future several times and have led to a significant delay in completing the questionnaire.
According to the state-level government, the questionnaire is now almost completed and should be sent to
the EU soon.
The Commission noted that Kosovo has an opportunity for sustainable progress through implementation of the Stabili- sation and Association Agreement and to advance on its European path once circumstances allow.
Kosovan officials knew that there would be no clear language for their country