Days ahead of a high-stakes European Union summit gathering Western Balkan leaders on Montenegro’s Adriatic coast, Montenegrin authorities have taken the controversial step of barring entry to 87 Serbian citizens, citing verified intelligence that the group poses a direct threat to national and internal security.
The group traveled to Montenegro’s coastal town of Tivat on Wednesday via a chartered Air Serbia flight, and was immediately flagged as part of heightened pre-summit security screening organized by Montenegrin law enforcement and intelligence agencies. In an official joint statement issued by the country’s national police force and National Security Agency, officials confirmed the entry ban stemmed from concrete operational and intelligence findings that confirmed the group’s presence would undermine stability ahead of the Friday gathering.
Photos released by Montenegrin police show the group was carrying communications equipment and banners emblazoned with “Serbia wins” — the signature campaign slogan of populist Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party. Vucic is scheduled to attend the upcoming summit in the resort town, adding a layer of political tension to the incident.
Regional media reports from both Montenegro and Serbia have identified multiple members of the banned group as known pro-Vucic government activists, several of whom have been linked to violent attacks on student demonstrators during the 12-month wave of street protests opposing the Serbian president’s administration. Montenegrin police added that a number of the barred individuals hold prior criminal records and have a documented history of participating in high-risk public disorder events. Along with the entry ban, authorities seized two buses used to transport the group after it arrived in the country.
As of Wednesday, there has been no official response from the Serbian government to the move. The incident comes amid already strained bilateral relations between the two countries: Vucic recently declined to attend Montenegro’s 20th-anniversary ceremonies marking the country’s 2006 independence split from Serbia, and has repeatedly thrown his public support behind pro-Serbian political factions in Montenegro that oppose the country’s NATO membership and advocate for closer alignment with Russia.
The upcoming EU-Western Balkans summit in Tivat centers on advancing EU accession prospects for six Western Balkan candidate states: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro. Each nation is at a distinct stage of the integration process, with Brussels prioritizing reforms across the region to counter growing geopolitical influence from Russia and China in the Western Balkans.