The EU has warned Montenegro that a shooting attack on a journalist will have an impact on the country’s membership bid and urged it to investigate the incident.

Olivera Lakic, who reports on organised crime for the daily newspaper Vijesti, was shot and wounded on Tuesday in front of her apartment building in the capital, Podgorica.

The attack prompted a protest by journalists, rights activists and opposition parties in Podgorica and was condemned by Montenegrin and foreign officials including the president-elect, Milo Đjukanović, and the EU’s enlargement commissioner, Johannes Hahn.

“This has an impact on the standing and reputation of the country … It is on our radar screen and we expect a proper investigation,” Hahn told reporters after visiting Vijesti’s offices and meeting Lakic after her release from hospital.

Montenegro, a small Adriatic republic, wants to join the EU but to do so it must root out endemic organised crime and corruption.

It was the second attack on Lakic since 2012, when she was beaten, also in front of her home. A perpetrator was sentenced to nine months in jail but freed early as part of an amnesty. Three men are being sought over Tuesday’s shooting.

There have been about a dozen attacks on journalists and media organisations in Montenegro in the past 15 years, including the 2004 killing of Duško Jovanović, a newspaper editor.