The European Commission slammed Montenegro for its lack of progress in fight against organised crime in its progress report released on April 17, and said that the country needs to make further progress in most other areas.

Montenegro is one of the two most advanced Western Balkan countries in the EU accession path along with Serbia. The country hopes to join EU in 2025, but the latest report is discouraging. 

“Despite some progress, corruption is prevalent in many areas and remains an issue of concern,” the report noted.

Although the operational capacity of institutions has improved, the EU concluded that all institutions should demonstrate a more proactive attitude.

“Challenges to the credibility, independence and priority-setting of the Anti-Corruption Agency need to be addressed,” it noted.

The country must make progress in financial investigations and seizure and confiscation of assets. It should also continue investigations and convictions in high-level corruption cases.

“Further improvements of the track record of successful investigations and convictions will only be possible in an environment where independent institutions are shielded from any undue influence and incentivised to fully use their powers,” the report noted.

The country should also show more results in the fight against organised crime, although some progress has been made.

The report also noted that the political situation in the country remains unstable due to the parliament boycott by most opposition parties. 

“Returning the political debate to the parliament is the responsibility of all political actors. Parts of the opposition returned to the parliament in December 2017, but this partial and selective ending of the boycott is yet to result in improved parliamentary dialogue and scrutiny. The political scene remains fragmented, polarised and marked by lack of political dialogue, notably in the democratic institutions,” the report says.

The country was also criticised for the lack of progress in investigations of old cases of violence against journalists and for political pressure on local media.

“Recent political interference in the national public broadcaster Council and the Agency for Electronic Media are a matter of serious concern. The media scene remains highly polarised and challenges in understanding the role of free media persists. The number of defamation cases remains high, also due to weak self-regulatory mechanisms,” the report reads.

The assessment of Montenegro’s economic progress was more positive and the EU noted that the country is moderately prepared in developing a functioning market economy, but noted that the government should keep working on reducing the public debt.

“Montenegro has made some progress and is moderately prepared in terms of capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union,” the report noted.

The country was also praised on its efforts to align its legislation with that of the EU.