Satler: EU expects Constitutional Court to be completed by the start of summer break

The European Union (EU) expects the Constitutional Court to be completed by the beginning of the summer break, meaning that the parliament will have agreed and made decisions by then, said the head of the EU delegation in Montenegro, Johan Sattler.

In an interview with Television of Montenegro, he said that concrete results of the work of the judiciary through final verdicts are expected from Montenegro.

Sattler, as reported by the RTCG Portal, highlighted a positive shift through less political influence on the judiciary and more appointments based on professional merit.

He expects three or four chapters to be closed by the summer break, and intergovernmental conferences to be organized more frequently in the coming period in order to achieve the goal of closing all chapters by the end of the year.

"A lot has already been done, but we want to see more. Chapter 23 involves constitutional changes, which requires a qualified majority in parliament. We need to see appointments. There are members of the Judicial Council who need to be elected by a qualified majority," Satler said.

He said that it is also necessary for judges of the Constitutional Court to be elected.

"So there are other parameters, benchmarks that we need to see along with the results in terms of verdicts and further progress in that chain. I really expect that before the summer break there will be progress and that parliament will agree and make decisions," Satler added.

Responding to the question of whether he believes that Montenegro will close all chapters by the end of the year and if that does not happen, the process will enter 2027, what are the possible consequences, Satler said that there are still eight months left until the end of the year.

"So I think that's the main thing. Also, from the European Commission side, we very much support this government's ambition to finish the job by the end of the year. And we're seeing a good pace right now," Sattler said.

According to him, there are some things that cannot be predicted, on both sides.

"It's not the end of the world if we enter next year. One thing that I believe will be different from next year is that you are entering an election cycle, and that always has consequences for the work of parliament, for the atmosphere," Satler said.