The Central Bank of Montenegro (CBCG) is preparing to operate within the European financial and central banking system from Montenegro’s first day of EU membership, Governor Irena Radović told European Parliament members at a meeting on 26 October 2026. The bank said the talks covered accession progress and its readiness to meet membership obligations.
Radović outlined the CBCG’s contribution to the recent provisional closure of negotiating chapters 17, Economic and Monetary Policy, and 18, Statistics. The bank has also made progress on Chapter 9, Financial Services, whose provisional closure is expected soon, according to the CBCG.
A Needs Assessment project, carried out with the central banks of the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany and experts from the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), assessed the CBCG’s institutional, operational and functional readiness for future membership of the ESCB and, later, the Eurosystem. Its findings and recommendations will underpin the next phase of the bank’s institutional transformation, the CBCG said.
That work is expected to strengthen capacity in monetary policy, statistics, financial stability, supervision, information technology, cyber resilience, data management and European coordination. Radović said European integration required more than aligning legislation, adding: “Our goal is to position the CBCG as an independent, credible and fully European institution.”
The discussions also covered Montenegro’s accession to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and domestic instant payments using the European TIPS Clone platform. Radović said the systems could reduce costs, speed up and secure transactions, and strengthen Montenegro’s links with European financial markets.
Radović said the CBCG was improving its regulatory and supervisory framework, expanding supervisory capacity and strengthening the financial sector’s operational and cyber resilience. Participants also identified independent supervision, anti-money laundering standards and timely management of financial and operational risks as important to protecting financial-system integrity.
Waitz, co-chair of the EU-Montenegro Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee, and Marjan Šarec, the European Parliament’s standing rapporteur for Montenegro, welcomed the CBCG’s progress and institutional capacity-building. They said the quality of reform implementation and institutions’ ability to take on membership obligations mattered as much as formally closing negotiating chapters. The participants agreed to continue dialogue with EU institutions and prepare for membership responsibilities.
