The Energy Community said that Montenegro has become its first contracting party to transpose the Trans-European Networks for Energy (TEN-E) regulation, thus supporting integrated and interconnected energy systems, strengthening energy security, and fostering market competition across the Energy Community region.
The procedure was completed after the Montenegrin parliament ratified last week the law on cross-border energy infrastructure projects, which transposes the main elements of the TEN-E framework. Next, Montenegro will further specify in the next six months the specific provisions related to the permit-granting process, the manual of procedures, public participation and transparency for cross-border energy infrastructure projects, the Energy Community said in a statement on Thursday.
"This represents Montenegro’s second major legislative milestone in just one month towards deeper regional and EU energy market integration," said the Energy Community which which supports EU neighbours toward membership of the bloc through full implementation of the EU energy law. In February, Montenegro became the third contracting party, after Serbia and Moldova, to transpose the Electricity Integration Package.
As a result, the Energy Community initiated on March 3 the compliance verification process on the transposition of the package, marking the start of the technical assessment required to advance towards electricity market coupling with the EU prior to accession. This assessment shall be completed in three months.
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Montenegro's power market has been linked with the Italian one via a submarine power cable that was put into operation in 2019 by power transmission system operators Terna of Italy and Crnogorski Elektroprenosni Sistem (CGES) of Montenegro.
In October 2025, Montenegro and Italy signed a memorandum of understanding for coupling their electricity markets, and for speeding up the project for the construction of a second undersea power cable connecting their power grids. The project is crucial for Montenegro’s day-ahead market coupling with Italy and connection to the EU single electricity market, with digital integration expected by late 2026 or early 2027 and full integration by 2036–2037.
Headquartered in Austria and supported by the EU, the Energy Community has nine contracting parties - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine - and three observers - Armenia, Norway and Turkey. Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were part of the Energy Community before joining the EU.
Montenegro aspires to close all EU accession negotiation chapters by the end of 2026 and become the 28th member of the bloc in 2028.