EU officials encourage Montenegro to press on with reform

By PREDRAG MILIC
Associated Press

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Senior European Union officials have praised small Montenegro for siding with the bloc’s sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine and urged the small Balkan nation to press on with reform needed to advance toward EU membership. The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and the Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi on Thursday attended a joint Montenegro-EU Stabilization and Association Council, held for the first time in a Balkan candidate country, in an apparent expression of EU’s commitment to the integration of the volatile region. Montenegro is widely seen as the next in line for the EU membership, but the nation’s advance has been stalled because of internal political tensions.