When Will Montenegro Join the EU — and Is It in Schengen?

Montenegro is not yet a member of the European Union. It is the candidate furthest along in accession talks. All 33 chapters that need negotiating are open, and 21 of them have been provisionally closed. The government in Podgorica wants to finish negotiations in 2026, sign the accession treaty in 2027 and join in 2028. The Commission president has backed that target publicly. But there is no legally fixed accession date, and there won't be one until a treaty is signed and ratified.

On travel, the answer is simpler. Montenegro is not in Schengen, its border with Croatia has real passport checks, and days in Montenegro are counted separately from Schengen days. The euro it uses is a separate matter again.

Montenegro became a candidate in December 2010 and opened accession negotiations on 29 June 2012, according to the European Commission's enlargement page. Every one of the 33 chapters has been opened. The latest closures came on 12 October 2026, when the Council of the EU announced that chapters 17 (economic and monetary policy), 18 (statistics) and 19 (social policy and employment) had been provisionally closed. The Council puts the running total at 21 closed, which leaves 12 of the 33 still to close.

Progress sped up in 2026. Twelve chapters were closed by the end of 2025, five of them (including chapter 4, free movement of capital) on 16 December 2025. The 2026 closures were:

Date (2026) / Chapters provisionally closed
January — 32: Financial control
March — 21: Trans-European networks
June — 2 and 28
14 July — 8: Competition policy; 29: Customs union
12 October — 17: Economic and monetary policy; 18: Statistics; 19: Social policy and employment

"Provisionally closed" is not a formality. Under the negotiating principles quoted in the Council's own press releases, agreement on one chapter is not final until there is an overall agreement covering all chapters. The EU also keeps the right to reopen a chapter "at an appropriate moment" if it has to. Monitoring of how Montenegro implements EU law continues until the end.

So the 21-of-33 count measures momentum. It is not a countdown that cannot go backwards. The last chapters are the hardest. In its October 2026 communication the Commission says the "fundamentals" cluster, which includes the judiciary and fundamental rights (chapter 23) and justice, freedom and security (chapter 24), "opens first, closes last" and sets the pace of negotiations.

Three dates come up again and again, and each has a named source. The first is the end of 2026 for closing the talks. Montenegro's chief negotiator, Predrag Zenović, says all chapters can be closed by then. At a joint press conference in Podgorica on 1 October 2026, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: "We believe in Montenegro '28 by 28'" and "The finish line is in sight." The slogan means Montenegro as the EU's 28th member in 2028. The second and third dates are 2027 for signing the treaty and 2028 for joining. Montenegro's Minister of European Affairs, Maida Gorčević, named them on 23 October 2026. She added that Montenegro has finished its own work on all 33 chapters and that EU assessments of the remaining 12 are expected by the end of the year. Commissioner Marta Kos has said, according to press reports in August, that 2028 is achievable even without closing every chapter in 2026, and that the speed of ratification will matter most.

None of these is a binding schedule. Even the Commission's financial package for Montenegro's accession, proposed on 30 June 2026, does not prejudge the timing. 2028 is Montenegro's government target, supported politically in Brussels, not a date anyone can guarantee.

Closing the chapters is not the end. Under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union, the Council decides unanimously, the European Parliament gives its consent, and the terms of admission go into an agreement that every contracting state ratifies under its own constitutional rules. That means 27 national ratifications plus Montenegro's own, and any one of them can take longer than expected.

Work on the treaty text has already begun. EU ambassadors agreed in April 2026 to set up a dedicated working group, and its first meeting was reported in May. Croatia shows how long the final stretch can take: it signed its accession treaty in December 2011 and joined on 1 July 2013. That gap of roughly 18 months is a useful reference point, not a rule.

The European Commission's latest annual country report is the Montenegro Report 2025, published on 4 November 2025. The Commission is scheduled to present its 2026 enlargement package, including the Montenegro report, on 4 November 2026, two days after this article's date. The 2025 report, as summarised by European Western Balkans, rated Montenegro "moderately prepared" on fighting corruption and organised crime and on freedom of expression. It rated the judiciary "between a moderate and a good level". It said the anti-corruption agency still needed a full-term director. It also asked for urgent implementation of Venice Commission recommendations after Parliament's decision to end a Constitutional Court judge's mandate; the Venice Commission published its opinion on that case in June 2025.

The Commission's 2026 Rule of Law Report (17 July 2026), again as summarised by European Western Balkans, records progress: constitutional amendments strengthening the judicial and prosecutorial councils, and more final rulings in high-level corruption cases. It also flags continuing attacks on prosecutors, a legal challenge over the public broadcaster's director-general, and gaps in ownership transparency for online media. The final chapters depend on exactly these areas.

Every member state has to agree at each step, so a bilateral dispute can delay talks. On 22 July 2026, Croatia's foreign ministry listed its open issues with Montenegro, including compensation for wartime detainees, missing persons, war-crimes prosecutions, property claims, the maritime boundary and the training ship Jadran. Croatia said these issues "must be settled" so they do not hold up the final stage of accession. Croatia has blocked the closing of chapter 31 (foreign, security and defence policy) since December 2024, and on 14 October 2026 it sent EU states a list of demands, according to European Western Balkans. Euronews reported on 16 October, citing unnamed officials, that Germany had asked Croatia to settle the disputes constructively and offered to mediate.

Press reports in September 2026 claimed that several member states had asked for a "pause". The Dutch ambassador to Montenegro denied that, Estonia's foreign ministry denied it, and the EU Delegation in Podgorica called the reports unfounded. Our reading is that bilateral issues are a real risk to the 2028 date, and that headlines about formal blocks should be checked against official statements.

These are separate arrangements with different members. The EU is the union of 27 states. The Schengen Area is a zone without internal border checks, and the Council of the EU says it has 29 members: 25 EU states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The eurozone is the group of EU states that have formally adopted the euro under EU rules.

Montenegro is in none of the three, even though the euro is its everyday currency. It adopted the euro unilaterally in 2002, without a monetary agreement with the EU. We explain the background and what it means for transfers and deposits in our guide on why Montenegro uses the euro without being in the EU.

Montenegro is not in the Schengen Area. The UK government's travel advice says so directly, and the Council's list of Schengen members does not include it. Croatia, Montenegro's EU neighbour, has been a member of both the EU (since 1 July 2013) and Schengen (since 1 January 2023). So when you cross the Croatia–Montenegro land border, or fly between Montenegro and a Schengen airport, you are crossing an external Schengen border.

Driving from Dubrovnik to Bar, you pass Croatia's exit control and then Montenegro's entry control, and the reverse on the way back. UK advice recommends getting your passport stamped on entry and exit in Montenegro, because the dated stamp helps settle questions about how long you have stayed. (In Schengen countries, stamps for non-EU travellers have been replaced by electronic EES registration since April 2026.)

Montenegro and Schengen run separate allowances. UK government travel advice says British citizens can stay in Montenegro without a visa for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. It also says time in Montenegro does not count towards the Schengen 90-day limit, and time in Schengen countries does not count towards Montenegro's. For an owner splitting time between a flat in Bar and trips to Italy or Croatia, the two counts run in parallel.

Two caveats. The allowance depends on your passport, so readers from the UAE, Israel or elsewhere should check their nationality's rules on the Montenegrin government's visa page. And staying in your own apartment brings a registration duty within 24 hours. We cover both in our guide to Montenegro's 90-day rule and registration.

ETIAS is the EU's planned travel authorisation for visa-exempt visitors. As of 2 November 2026 it is not operating, and the European Commission says the start date will be announced several months before launch. The fee is planned at €20 (the Commission says the increase from €7 is still going through formal approval), and ETIAS will cover visits to 30 European countries. Montenegro is not one of them: ETIAS covers the 29 Schengen states plus Cyprus, and Montenegro is outside both groups. For a trip that is only to Montenegro, you will not need ETIAS, now or after it launches. Once it is running, visa-exempt non-EU travellers will need it for any part of the same trip spent in Schengen countries. EU citizens will not need it.

The Entry/Exit System (EES) has been fully operational since 10 April 2026, replacing passport stamps at the external borders of 29 European countries. It registers non-EU nationals on short stays, so EU citizens are not in it. A non-EU national entering Croatia from Montenegro should expect EES registration there; Montenegro's own border checks are separate.

Not on the day it joins the EU. The Council of the EU says that Schengen membership comes after a series of evaluations confirming that a country can apply the Schengen rules. After that, all existing Schengen members must approve unanimously, having consulted the European Parliament. That is a separate decision taken after EU accession.

Recent examples show how long that step can take. Croatia joined the EU in 2013 and Schengen in 2023. Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in 2007; the Council agreed to lift their air and sea border checks at the end of 2023 (in effect from 31 March 2024), and they became full Schengen members on 1 January 2025. As of 2 November 2026, no official EU document we found sets a Schengen date for Montenegro.

The euro question was settled in principle on 12 October 2026, when chapter 17 was closed. According to the EU's common position for that chapter, Montenegro would take part in Economic and Monetary Union from accession as a member state "with a derogation", the status held by EU members that have not yet adopted the euro formally. Under EU law the euro will not be legal tender in Montenegro until that derogation is lifted. The same text exceptionally authorises Montenegro to keep using the euro as its sole legal tender nationally, so the euro does not stop working in shops and banks. Montenegro must also apply to join the exchange-rate mechanism ERM II and take part for at least two consecutive years, and an adjusted convergence framework will be written into the accession treaty.

For owners, day-to-day money does not change: prices and bank accounts are in euros and would stay so. One concrete change is already on paper: banks' depositor information puts deposit protection at €50,000 per depositor per bank until accession, rising to €100,000 from that date.

The clearest change applies to EU citizens. In its common position on chapter 4 (free movement of capital), dated 12 December 2025, the EU says all remaining real-estate restrictions on EU citizens "will have to be lifted at the time of accession", aiming at equal treatment for residential, commercial and agricultural property. The same document notes that Montenegro intends to keep its restrictions for third-country nationals, using 22 June 2009 as the reference date allowed under the EU treaties. Buyers from EU states would therefore gain the most on paper.

For buyers from the US, the UK, the UAE or Israel, nothing in the documents we reviewed removes existing rights: foreigners can already buy apartments, and the restrictions we saw in the EU position concern mainly agricultural land. EU citizens (and nationals of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) are also already exempt from the €150,000 tax-value threshold for residence through property introduced in January 2026. Our guide to residence permits through property explains that threshold, and our piece on what Brexit changed for UK buyers explains why British buyers are in the third-country group.

We will not promise that accession raises prices; nobody can reliably promise that. What official data does show is that prices rose while membership was still only a target. Montenegro's statistics office, Monstat, reported an average price for new-build dwellings of €1,854 per square metre nationally in the third quarter of 2024. The figure for the second quarter of 2026 was €2,557, and €2,838 in the coastal region. Quarterly figures move around. The city-level figures in our apartment price guide are Estitor's own calculations, citing Monstat as a base, and they give a higher national average (€2,970 per square metre for Q2 2026) than the Monstat new-build series. The two are not directly comparable, and Monstat notes that its average moves with the share of solidarity housing.

What accession could change is structural: access to EU funds, an easier legal path for EU citizens to buy and live there, and EU-level deposit protection. Whether that shows up in prices, and when, depends on supply, tourism, interest rates and timing.

If you own property in Montenegro or plan to buy, a few signals matter more than headlines:

• The next intergovernmental conference. Count the chapters closed against the 12 still open, using Council of the EU press releases.
• Chapters 23 and 24. Closing these would be the strongest sign the end is near.
• The Commission's 2026 report on Montenegro, scheduled for 4 November 2026, and any roadmap with dates.
• Croatia–Montenegro talks. Look for official statements from both foreign ministries, not anonymous reports.
• The accession treaty. First a final text, then a signing date, then the ratification count across 27 member states.
• Schengen and ETIAS notices on official EU sites before you change travel plans.
• Deposit and residence rules. Check what changes on the actual accession date, not when the treaty is signed.

As of 2 November 2026, Montenegro is close to the end of its accession negotiations. The 2028 membership target is credible but not guaranteed. Schengen membership would be a separate, later step, and the euro will stay in daily use either way. Until accession, plan around today's rules: the 90/180 clock, registration, and your status as an EU or non-EU buyer.

Zen Gardens is a residential project in the Tomba district of Bar. Construction is scheduled to start on 1 December 2026, with completion planned for 15 December 2028. For the project's details, see the Zen Gardens project page.