The European Union expects the new Montenegrin Government to keep the course of full alignment with its foreign policy.

“Montenegro is one of the candidate countries with a long track record of 100 percent of alignment of foreign policy, this is something the European Union is stressing very often and appreciating very regularly, because its comes at a cost for the country because it makes it also a target of malicious foreign interference,” said EU spokesperson Peter Stano.

Stano confirmed that the EU followed the June 11 early parliamentary elections in Montenegro very closely, but stressed that, as always, an official statement and assessment will be issued after the OSCE/ODIHR preliminary report.

For us it is important that the elections took place and that, in order to maintain its leading position as accession candidate, which entails also the 100 percent long term alignment with our foreign and security policy decision, Montenegro needs to keep the course, they need to invest energy and they need to continue advancing on important reforms, especially in the area of the rule of law, and delivering on all the other requirements of the membership, said Stano.

The Europe Now movement and the Democratic Party of Socialists won the highest number of votes in the Montenegrin snap parliamentary elections held on June 11.

The elections were marked by a record low turnout of 56.4 percent, the lowest since the introduction of the multi-party system in the country.

These are the sixth parliamentary elections since Montenegro restored its independence in 2006.

Despite the fact that Montenegro is the most advanced EU accession candidate, it has not advanced in the accession process since 2021 due to insufficient progress on key reforms, especially those related to rule of law.