President Nikos Christodoulides on Wednesday expressed his delight at the European Union’s 27 member states agreeing to establish an ad hoc working party to draft an accession treaty for Montenegro, bringing the western Balkan nation a significant step closer to membership of the bloc.

He described the move as “a strong signal of momentum in EU enlargement” and “a key priority of the Cyprus presidency” of the Council of the EU, as well as “an integral part of our overall objective for a now autonomous union, open to the world”.

“The establishment of the ad hoc working party on the accession treaty for Montenegro marks a key step forward in the enlargement process. We remain committed to supporting Montenegro on its path towards EU membership,” he said.

Christodoulides was later thanked by Montenegrin President Jakov Milatovic, who said that “Cyprus is a committed friend of Montenegro and a strong supporter of EU enlargement”.

“Since our last discussion on this topic, I was confident that we could begin the preparatory work for Montenegro’s accession treaty during your presidency,” he said, before adding that “this is a joint effort and success”.

He also confirmed that he will visit Cyprus on May 18.

Should Montenegro succeed in acceding to the EU, it will bring to an end the longest period between countries joining the bloc in over half a century, with it having been almost 13 years since Croatia, the last country to join the EU, did so in 2013, while in the intervening years, one member state, the United Kingdom, has left the bloc.

That period is the longest since the 20 and a half years between the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952 and the accession of Denmark, Ireland and the UK to the European Communities in 1973.

Montenegro is one of ten countries which have applied to join the EU, of which six – Albania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine – are currently negotiating candidates.

Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia are candidates which are yet to commence negotiations, with Georgia having suspended its application process. Turkey’s negotiations have been frozen since 2016, while Kosovo, which the Republic of Cyprus does not recognise, applied to join the EU in 2022 but has not yet been designated a candidate.