This article reports on Montenegro's push for EU membership and Denmark's decision to revise its defense spending plan due to rising security concerns. It highlights the upcoming EU summit with Western Balkan leaders and the contrasting agendas.
Denmark will have to rip up a five-year defence funding plan only agreed eight months ago, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told the Financial Times, admitting her country will need to spend more to address growing European security risks and meet more ambitious Nato spending goals. Today, our Balkans correspondent reports on Montenegro ’s stuttering EU accession process ahead of a summit of EU and western Balkan leaders.
And our climate and trade correspondents report that the Mercosur trade agreement gives the South American nations leeway on deforestation rules. EU officials preparing for a summit with western Balkan leaders today are at pains to stress that the meeting is not about the six countries’ bids to join the bloc. But Montenegro’s Prime Minister Milojko Spajić has other plans, writes Marton Dunai. Considered one of the region’s best candidates for EU accession, Montenegro applied in 2008 and began formal talks in 2012. By its own optimistic forecast, it will be a member in 2028. The road is likely to be bumpy due to a pro-Serbian and pro-Russian bloc in the country’s government. Montenegro has set its sights on breaking the deadlock on new EU accessions since Croatia’s 2013 entry, positioning itself as low-hanging fruit for the bloc. Spajić this week boasted that his government has “achieved in 12 months what our dear predecessors achieved in exactly 12 previous years”. “This is just the beginning,” he added. Montenegro this week closed three of the needed “chapters” to progress in the enlargement process. “Yesterday was a celebratory moment for Montenegro,” foreign and European affairs minister Filip Ivanović told the FT. Today’s gathering “is not an enlargement summit”, EU officials involved in its preparations said yesterday, stressing that it would instead focus on economic partnerships, political alignment and co-ordinated responses to issues such as Russian disinformatio
Montenegro EU Accession Denmark Defence Spending NATO Security Risks Balkan Summit
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