The European Union and Montenegro's delegations agreed on Tuesday to open the last screened chapter in the accession talks on Competition policy, N1 reported.

Chapter 8 is the 33rd out of a total of 35 negotiations chapters, while three were provisionally closed, the Council of Europe (CoE) said in a statement.

“Further Accession Conferences will be planned, as appropriate, in order to take the process forward in the second half of 2020. The accession negotiations were launched in June 2012,” it added.

According to them, “the opening of negotiations on Chapter 8 – Competition policy, the Union has closely examined Montenegro's present state of preparations. On the understanding that Montenegro has to continue to make progress in the alignment with and implementation of the acquis in this chapter, the EU noted that there are benchmarks that need to be met for the provisional closure of this chapter.”

“In addition, the EU underlined that it would devote particular attention to monitoring all specific issues mentioned in its common position. Monitoring of progress in the alignment with and implementation of the acquis will continue throughout the negotiations. The Conference will have to return to this chapter at an appropriate moment,” the statement said.