New EU Commission reports and regional updates released on 28 August show continued, if uneven, progress on EU accession across the Adria region. Montenegro and Serbia remain ahead in chapter negotiations, though political concerns and rule-of-law backlogs are slowing Serbia’s track. Albania and North Macedonia, meanwhile, have accelerated technical preparations, boosted by political will and public support.
Brussels is pushing for tangible results ahead of the 2025 enlargement stocktake, offering incentives via the €6 billion Growth Plan for the Western Balkans.
The message is clear: reforms must translate into investor confidence, infrastructure delivery, and cross-border mobility.
Despite differences in pace, the Adria region’s EU trajectory is no longer theoretical—it’s about execution. As competition intensifies over who gets ahead in integration, the region’s political class faces its most consequential test in a decade: to deliver not promises, but progress.
