75. 28 in 2028 ? Agriculture and EU enlargement in Montenegro

For some time now, across Montenegro, prominent slogans are on display: ‘28 in 2028’.

It reflects the country's determination to complete accession negotiations to join the EU and become the EU’s newest member state — a process that began in 2012.

This small country of 600,000 inhabitants, wedged between the Adriatic Sea and the Balkan mountains, is now the most advanced candidate country in the region.

But behind the negotiations, there remains a very concrete question: what will become of Montenegrin agriculture when it enters the large European market?

This is our focus in episode 74 of Food for Europe. We take you to Montenegro to meet Mijo Nedić and Vučko Pešić, farmers and breeders with different points of view and ways of doing things.

Frank Bollen, Head of Unit for Enlargement and Pre-Accession Aid at the European Commission’s directorate-general for agriculture and rural development, DG AGRI, gives us an insight into the efforts that Montenegro still needs to make.

And the Montenegrin ambassador to the European Union, Petar Marković, shares with us the country’s determination to meet EU expectations.