As President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy highlighted in the press conference following the meeting of Heads of State or Government held in Brussels between 16 and 17 December, Member States decided to give Montenegro the status of candidate country to join the European Union. This decision underlines the conviction of the Council that the countries of the Western Balkans have a European vocation.

Council's decision to grant the status of candidate country to Montenegro follows the recommendations expressed by the European Commission in November 2010, when adopting the Enlargement Package with the annual assessment of the European Union's enlargement agenda. In its recommendations, the Commission was optimistic about the progress made by Western Balkans countries in general, and Montenegro in particular.

Following Council's decision, the Commission underlined that this is a demonstration of the success of the enlargement policy implementation from the European Union. The progress made by Montenegro to progress in its integration process into the European Union was already referred in June at the EU-Montenegro Association and Stabilisation Council meeting.

Moreover, the EU hopes that Council's decision will give new impetus to Montenegro's EU-related reforms, especially with respect to the key priorities identified by the Commission as instrumental to preparing the country for the opening of its accession negotiations with the EU.