Montenegro has entered a legislative sprint, with EU accession deadlines pushing Parliament into overdrive and turning regulatory alignment into a day-to-day market force, according to BDK Advokati Senior Partner Luka Popovic.
"Montenegro is in a period of exceptionally intense legislative activity, largely propelled by the EU accession process and the government’s stated aim to close all negotiation chapters by the end of 2026," Popovic begins. In practice, this has meant a fast pace of alignment with EU law across a very wide range of areas, to the point that "Parliament adopted 25 laws in a single day in January and is expected to remain in near-constant session through the end of the year." At the same time, this speed comes with trade-offs. "Some regulations appear rushed, with limited time for parliamentary scrutiny. I expect that some of them may need to be revisited through amendments once implementation realities become clearer."
As for the areas seeing the most change under this alignment push, Popovic notes that the legislative reforms also cover key sectors of the financial and regulatory ecosystem, including credit institutions, capital markets, investment firms, and financial instruments and securities. "Not all laws apply immediately; some will become fully operational upon EU membership, while others are already affecting day-to-day compliance," he adds.
Moreover, Popovic reports that, on the corporate side, a key development is the new Companies Act and the new Act on Registration of Legal Entities, both applicable as of January 1, 2026. "Among the numerous novelties introduced by the new legislation, a major shift is the transition to fully electronic registration, with hard‑copy submissions no longer accepted."
While in principle this is a natural step in an EU-aligned modernization agenda, in practice it has created significant short-term disruption, Popovic goes on to say. "The corporate registrations and updates have, at times, been effectively blocked, impacting everything from incorporating new entities to updating registry data. One practical obstacle has been the requirement that documents be submitted in electronic form and confirmed and authenticated via notaries, while the notarial system and related procedures were not prepared for this step into a fully digital process," he reports. " With additional practical challenges of the new system, authorities and practitioners are now working through fixes and interim solutions."
Focusing on sectors where regulatory change is translating into immediate market activity, Popovic immediately mentions gambling. "The new Gambling Act was adopted in 2025, requiring all existing operators to undergo re-licensing, with prior licenses expiring in the course of this year. The system is shifting from a concession model to a licensing model, and that transition has generated a substantial workload given the number of operators and the sector’s importance to Montenegro’s economy," he says. The stakes are particularly high for land-based casino operators, where the license fee is EUR 2 million. "Another open practical question concerns how legacy concession payments will be treated. Operators that paid concessions earlier are eligible for partial refunds but will then need to finance the new license. This raises practical questions around how payments will be handled in practice, including whether set‑off mechanisms might be allowed so that operators would simply ‘top up’ the amount already paid to the government, rather than submitting the full new fee upfront."
Finally, Popovic indicates that there is investor interest building in the energy sector, including interest coming from Chinese companies. "There are a number of renewable-energy projects currently on the market for sale at various stages of development, including many that have already executed grid-connection agreements. Recent weeks have brought a noticeable uptick in inbound inquiries and discussions, and this is an area I expect to remain active as investor appetite continues to evolve," he concludes.
