Is Montenegro in the EU?

As of 2023, Montenegro is not yet a member of the European Union. Montenegro applied for EU membership in 2008. The EU accession process started in 2012 and currently, it looks like Montenegro will become an EU member between 2025 and 2030.

Montenegro is currently in the midst of a deep political and institutional crisis. Following the No-confidence vote in August 2022, Prime Minister Abazovic’s new government fell and months later the country is still governed by an interim new government.

Key democratic institutions such as Montenegro’s Constitutional Court have not been properly functioning for almost two years now. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia Tanja Fajon has been warning of a suspension of the accession negotiations if Abazovic who was deputy Prime Minister in the previous government of Zdravko Krivokapic does not unblock the institutions.

The ruling majority has further upset its European partners with a new law that intends to limit the power of the president. The parliament passed it because the long-time ruler of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic from the Democratic Party of Socialists sought to be sabotaging the lawmaking progress.

He currently serves as the country’s president and is one of the most ardent opponents of the Serbian Orthodox Church. President Djukanovic who presumably has ties to organized crime argues that the church is working against the country’s European future and its European integration.

The current state of the EU Integration:

source: Wikipedia

When will Montenegro join the EU?

At the time of this writing, it is hard to predict when exactly Montenegro will move from granted candidate status to EU membership. As it seems, first the country needs to deal with the crisis in government. Later, Montenegro should be the first of the Western Balkan countries to join the European Union.

On the other hand, triggered by the Ukraine conflict, there seems to be more momentum with the European Commission to integrate the Western Balkans countries swiftly. European politicians have been signaling that there will be no halt to the accession negotiations despite the political quarrels. 

Montenegro will be the first of the other Western Balkan countries to join the EU between 2025 and 2030. EU membership is supported by 80% of the population. Once the political crisis is over, membership negotiations will continue regularly.

Is Montenegro in the EEA?

The European Economic Area (EEA) goes beyond the 27 European Union member states to also include Norway, Liechtenstein, and Island. Particularly smaller and wealthier countries in the European continent might be reluctant to become full European Union member states. What they can do instead is to ask to be part of the European Economic Area to take advantage of the EU single market.

Being part of the European single market comes with many benefits, mainly the free movement of goods, capital, and people between member states. Tiny countries with a strong growing economy such as Liechtenstein need a foreign labor force. The demand for labor can be satisfied by workers from the EEA.

Montenegro is not in the EEA. Montenegro is a small country but it is not wealthy. Wealthy member states of the European Economic Area choose deliberately not to aim at full EU membership. Montenegro aims to become an EU member.

blue and orange: countries with EU membership

green: EFTA states

red: EFTA not yet ratified

source: Wikipedia

Is Montenegro part of Schengen?

The Schengen area is an exclusive borderless zone containing both EU and non-EU member states. Currently, twenty-seven states are part of the Schengen area. Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland, and the United Kingdom are not in the Schengen zone, and traveling from and to one of these countries to a Schengen area country includes border checks.

The last country to join Schengen was Croatia at the start of 2023. The countries of the Western Balkans (Montenegro, Bosnia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, and Kosovo) have signed an association agreement with the EU, but they first need to join the EU before joining the Schengen area.

Montenegro is not part of the Schengen area. It borders Croatia, a country that joined the EU in 2013, and Schengen in 2023. Montenegro will be part of the Schengen area earliest 2035.

source: Wikipedia

Is Montenegro in Nato?

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a western defense alliance made up of 2 North American and 28 European member states. NATO has very strict accession criteria including military integration of weapon systems and political dialogue among its members. NATO came to be in 1949 with twelve founding members and has been expanding ever since.

Many countries in East- and Southeastern Europe have joined NATO in the last two decades: Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Romania in 2004; Croatia and Albania in 2009 and North Macedonia in 2020. 

Montenegro joined the military alliance NATO on June 5th, 2017. All countries of the Adriatic are now NATO member states. Of all countries of the Western Balkans, only Serbia, Bosnia, and Kosovo are not part of NATO.

There was no national referendum to decide Montenegro’s NATO accession. But public polls from that time indicate that there was a favorable opinion in favor of NATO membership. However, there was also strong resistance from pro-Serbian and pro-Russian political parties that were in opposition back then. 

A large chunk of the population has a negative view of the military alliance because they intervene in 1999 that brought air raids and bombs to Montenegro as well. 

Why did Montenegro join NATO?

The region of the Western Balkans has been sandwiched between opposing great powers for many centuries. Tito, Yugoslavia’s founder, and first leader made sure that Yugoslavia remained independent by not aligning with either the West (NATO) or the Warsaw Pact countries. He was one of the pioneers of the Non-Alignment Movement, an organization of 120 member states that was established in 1961 in Belgrade.

From the dissolution of the former Soviet Union in 1991 until Montenegro’s independence in 2006, Russia was not a serious player on the international scene. This changed with rising commodity prices which brought Russia wealth and an appetite for revanchism. 

It is this period in time around the year 2006 that Russian money started to flow into Montenegro, mainly into the real estate sector. (On a side note: before 2006  foreigners were not allowed to own property in Montenegro.) But besides Russia’s New Rich who profited immensely from the exponential rise in oil and gas prices, Russia became increasingly interested in Montenegro as well.

The reason behind this is Montenegro’s favorable location on the shores of the Mediterranean. The Russian Federation even went so far as to ask the Montenegrin Government for permission to install a military base in the seaport city of Bar, in the south of the country.

What many see as the main triggering event of the NATO accession was a planned coup attempt in October 2016, the day of the parliamentary elections in Montenegro. Montenegro’s prime minister at that time accused the Russian State to be directly involved. Montenegro finally joined NATO in June 2017, shortly after the coup d’etat attempt.

Can Montenegro citizens live in the EU?

Montenegro is neither part of the European Union nor the European Economic Area (EEA) nor the Schengen area. Many Montenegrin citizens have moved to the EU though but had to undergo the regular immigration procedures for non-EU citizens.

Citizens of Montenegro are allowed to travel visa-free to the European Union and stay up to 90 days within 180 days on the territory of the EU. Citizens of Montenegro are not allowed to live and move freely in the EU beyond these 90 days.

Can I enter Montenegro with EU ID?

Montenegro’s visa regime is similar to the visa policy of the Schengen area. Citizens of Schengen Annex II countries can enter and stay in Montenegro for up to 90 days. 

All European Union citizens, citizens of Monaco, San Marino, Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Serbia, and Kosovo can enter Montenegro with their ID cards and stay up to 90 days before they need to regulate their residence status in Montenegro.

Why does Montenegro use the Euro?

Montenegro is neither part of the European Union nor the Eurozone but still uses the Euro as its main currency. One could say that Montenegro borrowed the Euro currency since there is no formal agreement between the Balkan country and the European Union that would allow Montenegro to use the Euro as a legal tender.

This may sound strange to some readers but is rather a practical arrangement to guarantee price stability. As things stand now, it seems that the European Central Bank and broader EU will continue to tolerate the unilateral utilization of its currency. They are not happy about it though.

When Montenegro was still part of Yugoslavia, the country underwent a period of hyperinflation. The government of Montenegro has introduced a dual currency system in response to unilaterally declaring the Deutsch Mark and later the Euro as the de facto currency.

Montenegro currency before Euro

Montenegro used the Yugoslav Dinar as its official currency from 1945 until 1999. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia disintegrated shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1992 and gave birth to the newly-formed country of ‘Serbia and Montenegro’ which existed until 2006. In the period from 1992 until 1994 – amid the bloody Balkan Wars – the Central Bank in Belgrade started to print money as if there was no tomorrow.

The result was a doubling in prices every 1.39 days resulting in one of the most severe periods of hyperinflation in recorded history. Money became worthless overnight and the citizens of Serbia and Montenegro had to go back to bartering and subsistence farming just to survive. 

With trust in the financial system destroyed, it is no wonder that especially the Republic of Montenegro, the junior partner in this state union with Serbia, was looking for a more stable currency. They found it in the Deutsch Mark that was introduced in parallel to the Dinar in 1999. The Deutsch Mark became the sole legal tender in Montenegro two years after, in 2001.

When the Euro was finally introduced in January 2002, Montenegro replaced the Deutsch Mark with the Euro by unilaterally declaring it as its only legal tender.

Is Montenegro a Third-World Country?

Nowadays we mostly speak of developing countries when we want to describe countries that are still lacking in terms of economic and human development. The World Bank uses the level of national income as a gauge for the development phase of each country, dividing countries into these four sections:

• high income
• upper-middle income
• lower-middle
• low-income

Montenegro is not a third-world country. Montenegro is considered to be an upper-middle-income country. The GDP per capita in 2023 is $10.722 ($27.616 PPP). The Human Development Index (HDI) stands at 0.832, ranked 49th in the world.

Low-income and some lower-middle-income countries can be referred to as the third world or developing countries. These countries often have high levels of (child-) poverty, corrupt governments, low level of sanitation and hygiene, elevated levels of pollution (water, air, litter), etc.

Low-income countries have a GNI per capita of less than $1,036 whereas lower-middle-income countries fall somewhere between $1,036 and $4,045. Upper-middle-income countries such as Montenegro have a Gross National Income per capita of $4,045 to $12,535.

To sum things up, Montenegro is neither rich nor poor. The average net wage is currently 720,00 Euros per month. The minimum wage is 450,00 Euros. The life expectancy is 76 years.

Is Montenegro Muslim or Christian?

The Western Roman Empire which fell in 476 AD, was succeeded in the East by the Byzantine Empire of which Montenegro was initially part of. The capital of this emerging Eastern Roman Empire was Constantinople (nowadays Istanbul) until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453. 

These events are important in two ways. First, they cemented a divide between Roman-Latin- and Greek-influenced regions within the borders of the previous united Roman Empire. The Great Schism of 1054 led to a split of the Orthodox Church in the East from the Catholic Church in the West. 

Second, with the advance of the Ottoman empire in the 15th century, regions that were previously governed or influenced by the Byzantines were now becoming conquered by the Ottomans. Most of today’s Montenegro fell under Turkish rule and many people converted to Islam in the following centuries.

Montenegro is a multi-ethnic country with 76% of its population being Christian and 19% Muslim. Over 95% of the Christians follow Eastern Orthodoxy while the remaining identify as Roman Catholic.