Tivat June 5: 42 delegations confirmed, Merz and Macron to come after crisis

Tivat will on June 5 host 42 delegations and approximately 300 representatives of domestic and international media at the European Union-Western Balkans summit, the Montenegrin government announced on Tuesday, a day after finalising the list of participants jointly signed by European Council President Antonio Costa and Montenegrin President Jakov Milatovic. Brussels offices over the past 24 hours sent out an updated participants list confirming the attendance of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

For Serbia, attending Tivat for a fifth time in the same summit format, Macron’s attendance has concrete weight because the French president, according to regular Brussels briefings, retains the right to veto the accelerated opening of certain negotiation clusters, particularly Cluster 1 on the rule of law. President Aleksandar Vucic will arrive in Tivat with the same structural message he used in May in Brussels at a working dinner with Ursula von der Leyen, while European Integration Minister Tanja Miscevic will use the summit for a bilateral with Commissioner Marta Kos on the clusters Belgrade wants to open by the end of the calendar year.

Summit host President Milatovic will, in his opening address, present the theme of Montenegro’s 2026 chairmanship, “Strengthening security and stability together,” formally confirming Podgorica’s status as the frontrunner for next EU membership. Montenegro in March closed the second-to-last negotiating cluster, with a general framework for closing negotiations expected in Q1 2027. Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, will lead a parallel parliamentary format with the parliament speakers of candidate countries, where the main item will be a joint statement on the sanctions regime against Russia.

Five themes at the plenary session

The plenary session is structured around five items, according to a preparatory document from the Council Secretariat sent to members on Wednesday evening: progress of the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, regional energy security, migration routes through the Balkans to the EU, economic competitiveness in the context of the green transition, and the Belgrade-Pristina bilateral dialogue. Each item is allotted 25 minutes of plenary debate, followed by a working lunch on enlargement policy, key challenges and opportunities, and alignment with European policies and standards.

Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, in a brief joint appearance with Commissioner Kos, will present a package of 30 strategic projects in roads, energy networks and digital infrastructure, with financial support of six billion euros foreseen through the Growth Plan. Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob also confirmed attendance, as did Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, giving the summit a clearly regional character with strong participation from countries that completed the accession path in the past two decades.

Brussels and Berlin with a shared message, Paris more cautious

Berlin, through Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government in May, confirmed the formulation that enlargement is “a strategic obligation, not a discretionary one,” but German diplomats in Brussels kept reservations on specific dates for opening clusters for individual candidates. Merz’s government has also provided 11.5 billion euros for continued aid to Ukraine in the 2026 budget, an integral part of Brussels’ calculation that enlargement resources must be seen in the context of overall European security spending.

Paris arrives in Tivat with a different backdrop: Sebastien Lecornu’s French government survived two no-confidence votes in February and pushed through the 2026 budget after nearly two years of parliamentary deadlock that cost two prime ministers their resignations. Macron will come to Tivat with the platform he formulated at the European Council in March, where he insisted on a strict model of “conditional” integration, with emphasis on measurable indicators in the judiciary and the fight against corruption.

The next date is June 5

The next concrete date is the plenary part of the summit on June 5, beginning at 9 a.m. Central European Time, with a press conference at 1 p.m. The summit conclusions, to be released as a joint communique, will be finalised by Costa, von der Leyen and Milatovic during the working lunch, after which a bilateral between Vucic and Commissioner Kos is scheduled.

For Serbia, the main success indicator of the summit will be the wording of the conclusions on the Pristina dialogue, particularly how the working plan formally endorsed in May by the EU Special Representative Peter Sorensen will be recognised. According to diplomatic sources in Brussels, there will be no announcement of a new negotiation cluster for Serbia before the summit, but the Commission is expected to send a positive signal in June about the cluster covering free movement of workers, as a first step towards more concrete opening by the end of the year.

What signal do you expect the Tivat summit to send to the Serbian public, encouragement or a warning?