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Albania, Moldova, Montenegro and North Macedonia join EU's SEPA scheme
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Europe’s strategic autonomy starts at its borders: Montenegro’s SEPA leap
Montenegro’s full integration into Europe’s payment system shows that enlargement can advance through delivery and discipline, bringing citizens and businesses tangible benefits long before accession
Earlier this month Montenegro quietly reshaped its relationship with Europe. By sending and receiving its first Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) transactions, it joined Europe’s payment infrastructure in full. What began as a technical reform has become a symbol of efficiency and belonging, bringing faster, cheaper, and more reliable transfers to citizens and businesses alike.
For years, EU enlargement has been under fire. Critics say it’s too slow, too abstract, too distant from daily life. Montenegro’s SEPA leap proves it doesn’t have to be this way. EU reforms can deliver immediate, concrete gains for candidate countries: lower costs for firms, faster payments for families, and deeper ties with Europe’s economic core.
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Faster and cheaper transactions throughout the EU, Albania part of the SEPA scheme
Albania, Moldova, Montenegro and North Macedonia joined the Single Euro Payments Area or SEPA, enabling faster and cheaper financial transactions across the EU.
The European Commission announced on Thursday that Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Moldova have officially joined Europe's financial transactions ecosystem, SEPA, after 40 banks in the four countries aspiring to join the EU were admitted to the scheme.
By joining SEPA â short for Single Euro Payments Area â the four countries and the EU will have access to faster and cheaper financial transactions, potentially saving up to 500 million euros for individuals and businesses, the EU executive said.
The European Payments Council took this decision after the quartet entered the geographical scope of SEPA between November 2024 and March this year, the Commission said in a statement.