Montenegro's ambition to become the European Union's 28th member state by 2028 is running into an unexpected obstacle: language. Before joining, Podgorica must translate the entire acquis communautaire — the vast body of EU legislation, now numbering tens of thousands of legal acts — into Montenegrin. Brussels is increasingly doubtful that the work will be finished on time.
The country's negotiating framework with the EU is explicit: "Montenegro will need to produce translations of the acquis into its official language in good time before accession and will need to train a sufficient number of translators and interpreters required for the proper functioning of the EU institutions upon its accession." Montenegrin authorities insist they have invested heavily in administrative capacity and will meet the deadline. But European Commission officials have begun drafting contingency plans, according to EU sources.
A bilateral dispute with Croatia complicates matters
One reason for Brussels' concern is that Croatia, the bloc's newest member, has questioned the quality of some translated legal texts. Zagreb and Podgorica are locked in a bilateral dispute that could delay the entire accession process. Since Croatia joined in 2013, the volume of EU legislation has nearly doubled, making the translation task even more daunting.
Candidate countries are responsible for translating all relevant EU law into their future official language. The EU institutions only conduct a final check before publication in the Official Journal at the moment of accession. Translation is also just one part of the linguistic preparation: some laws must be adapted to the candidate's institutional context, for example by designating which national authorities will oversee their implementation.
"The Commission services are in regular contact with Montenegro and reviewing the pace of work in this regard," a Commission spokesperson said.
Derogation options on the table
The Commission is assessing several options for a potential derogation, including allowing Montenegro to use another official EU language until it can fill the gaps and accurately translate the remaining legislation. It would be up to Podgorica to choose, but Croatian is the most obvious candidate. It is the only official EU language that shares the same core features and is mutually intelligible with Montenegrin.
"The Montenegrin standard language belongs to the same dialect continuum as the Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian standard languages, and all are mutually intelligible," notes a recent study on the Montenegrin language.
Still, this is only one option among several, and it may not sit well with Montenegro. Identity politics runs deep in the Western Balkans, and Podgorica fought for years to have the Montenegrin language officially recognised internationally. Accepting Croatian as a temporary substitute could be politically sensitive.
Derogations are not unprecedented. Malta set a precedent: short of qualified translators, it secured an exceptional, transitional derogation from the obligation to translate all EU acts into Maltese for three years after joining in 2004, with any backlog due by the end of 2008. Ireland is another case, with a key difference: its derogation came decades after it joined, when Irish became a full official language, and it temporarily suspended the obligation to translate all EU acts into Irish.
In other words, Brussels has shown flexibility, not treating full translation of the acquis as an absolute condition for accession. Still, in this case, the most obvious fix may also be the hardest to sell politically. As Montenegro's EU bid hinges on resolving disputes with Croatia, the language question is likely to remain a delicate issue in the accession talks.
