Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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167. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on the progress of the accession of Montenegro to the European Union. [55213/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Ireland is a strong supporter of merit-based EU enlargement policy and believes that candidate countries should be permitted to join the EU once they meet all the necessary criteria. Ireland recognises Montenegro’s significant progress towards EU membership and notes its aim to join the EU in 2028. This would require it to close all remaining negotiating chapters during Ireland’s EU Presidency next year.

Montenegro is the most advanced candidate country in accession negotiations, with all 33 chapters opened and seven provisionally closed to date. The most recent Intergovernmental Conference took place on 27 June to close chapter 5 (public procurement). Ireland will seek to build upon this momentum during our Presidency and encourages Montenegro to implement the necessary reforms to align with all EU acquis to allow it to close all remaining chapters.

In recent months, Ireland has significantly deepened our high-level political contact with Montenegro to discuss progressing its EU candidacy. In September, I met with the Deputy Prime Minister for Foreign and European Affairs of Montenegro, Mr. Filip Ivanovic, in Dublin. In July 2025, Minister of State for European Affairs, Thomas Byrne T.D., visited Montenegro. Furthermore, in the margins of the European Political Community meeting in Copenhagen on 2 October, the Taoiseach met with the President of Montenegro’s President, Jakov Milatovic. Ireland’s strong support for Montenegro’s EU accession was communicated in each of these engagements, along with our wish to see it continue its progress on the necessary reforms.

Ireland will continue to support Montenegro on its EU accession path and is committed to providing political and technical assistance to help it to do so.