Podgorica, (MINA-BUSINESS) – Director-General of the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) Gert Jan Koopman has announced that Montenegro is expected to be the first of the Western Balkan countries to join the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), on 1 January 2025.

“I expect the first of the Western Balkan countries to join SEPA on 1 January  2025, namely Montenegro, with Albania and North Macedonia to follow shortly,” Koopman said in a speech at a joint session of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and Committee on Budgets.

According to the Central Bank’s Facebook account, he said that Serbia was also keenly interested in joining SEPA, as well as Kosovo, adding that, hopefully, Bosnia and Herzegovina would follow not much later.

This development is expected to considerably boost the economy and business climate in Montenegro, offering new opportunities to its citizens and companies.

Koopman said that all of the countries in the Western Balkan region were moving forward towards SEPA membership and that in the last 8 months, three of them had pretty much completed the task.

In early July, the CBCG submitted a formal SEPA accession request on behalf of Montenegro. CBCG previously stated that this marked a key step forward in further development and integration of Montenegro’s financial system into the European economic and market area.