Montenegro advances in EU entry talks in Russia's shadow

BRUSSELS - The EU has opened four new chapters in accession talks with Montenegro, while continuing to criticise lack of rule of law in Turkey and in the Balkans region more broadly.

The Montenegro decision came at an intergovernmental meeting in Brussels on Tuesday (16 December) and covers chapters on: statistics; consumer and health protection; customs union; and financial and budgetary affairs.

It brings to 16 out of 35 the number of sections now open and cements Podgorice’s lead position in the region in terms of EU and Nato membership progress.

It comes one day after EU foreign ministers allowed Bosnia more flexibility on constitutional reforms in its bid to complete a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, a pre-accession treaty.

The European Commission in October recommended opening two new chapters with Turkey, while staying silent on Montenegro.

But Russia’s increasing influence in the former Yugoslavia has caused alarm in EU capitals.

Sandro Gozi, Italy’s EU affairs minister, said the Montenegro decision “was not in nay way affected by external relations”.

But Montenegro’s foreign minister, Igor Luksic, noted that, unlike Serbia and Turkey, Montenegro, which is a popular holiday spot for wealthy Russians, has aligned itself with EU sanctions on Russia despite a "centuries-old tradition" of close Russia ties.

“It was a difficult call. But it was also very clear we cannot at the same time be on two sides, we cannot straddle, sit on both chairs at the same time, as our strategic choice is to join the EU. It’s always been the only reasonable choice”.

The EU Council’s annual stock-taking of the enlargement progress was this week marred by the row over Turkey’s mass arrest of opposition journalists.

The EU ministers’ formal conclusions on Tuesday said Turkey is still on the path to accession and is still a “key partner” on energy, trade, and on the Syria-Iraq crisis.

But they said nothing on opening new chapters.

They also said its crackdown on judges and police who tried to investigate high-level corruption, as well as the media arrests, “cast serious doubts over the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, and demonstrated an increasing intolerance of political opposition, public protest and critical media”.

Italy’s Gozi added that he was also “very surprised” that Turkey’s leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told the EU on Monday to “mind its own business” on the media crackdown.

He called press freedom “one of the fundamental issues for the European Union”.

He stopped short of calling on Turkey to release the detained reporters. But he added: "We think this [the ministers' conclusions] is a very strong messages to the authorities in Ankara".

The conclusions on Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Serbia also underlined that despite the Russia crisis the rule of law has “central importance” in the EU accession process.

The EU called on Albania to do more to fight organised crime.

It said “there are serious concerns about increasing politicisation of state institutions and growing shortcomings with regard to the independence of the judiciary and media freedoms” in Macedonia.

It tied the opening of the first accession chapters in Serbia talks to further progress on “normalisation” of relations with Kosovo and to Belgrade adopting the Russia sanctions regime.

The normalisation talks are due to resume in Brussels in January after a pause due to elections in Kosovo.

The EU on Tuesday instructed Kosovo’s new government to adopt new laws, “as a matter of priority”, to enable Eulex, the EU rule of law mission, to set up a special Kosovo war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The tribunal is due to be up and running in early 2015 and could end up indicting top former commanders in the KLA guerrilla army, including Kosovo’s former PM and recently appointed foreign minister Hashim Thaci.