Power without borders - How far has the region come in merging the electricity market with the EU?

The countries of the region are getting closer to fully integrating their electricity markets with the EU, a key step in ensuring competitive prices, greater system stability, resistance to energy shocks and support for the green transition. The process of connecting requires not only technical readiness, but also harmonization of legislation with EU regulations, which is currently in different stages in each of the countries of the region.

- The Energy Community Secretariat completed its assessment and communicated it to the European Commission on the 16 of December 2025. The process is now in the hands of the European Commission, which is reviewing the completeness and conformity of transposition, and its opinion is expected by mid-May 2026. In case of a positive opinion, Serbia will enter the 18-month phase that aims to ensure contractual and technical readiness - they say from the European Energy Community.

Based on current progress, the earliest possible market coupling for Serbia would be Q1 2028.

In Montenegro, the Energy Community Secretariat formally initiated the compliance verification of Montenegro`s legislation transposing the Electricity Integration Package on the 3 of March 2026.

- This represents the key step required to advance towards electricity market coupling with the EU ahead of accession. The Secretariat has three months to complete its assessment. This will be followed by a European Commission verification phase, lasting up to five months. Once verification is completed and in case of a positive opinion, Montenegrin stakeholders can submit formal request to join market coupling. The next phase, of minimum 18 months, would aim to ensure contractual and technical readiness for Montenegro to join the EU`s Single Day-Ahead Coupling (SDAC) and Single Intraday Coupling (SIDC) - they state for our portal.

If all steps proceed without delays, Montenegro could achieve day-ahead electricity market coupling with the EU in early 2028.

Bosna and Herzegovina is still lagging behind in this process, as it has not yet completed transposition of the Electricity Integration Package (EIP).

- The draft law transposing partially five out of the nine legal acts comprising the EIP are currently in parliamentary procedure, awaiting adoption by the House of People, while the remaining four are still pending. Once transposition is completed, the country will need to undergo the full verification and market coupling adherence process, which takes approximately 26 months: three months for verification by the Energy Community Secretariat, 5 months for verification by the European Commission and 18 months for the technical implementation - they point out in the European Energy Community.

Experts point out that full electricity market coupling of the region with the EU will ensure stable and competitive prices, more transparency and strengthen the resilience to energy crises.