Podgorica, (MINA) – Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said that he does not support the idea of Montenegro giving up its right to veto after joining the EU.

As Pobjeda daily reports, Spajic took part in the panel “Western Balkans and the European Union” in London, following the Berlin Process Summit, where, answering journalists’ questions about the possibility of EU membership without voting rights, he said that sovereignty is very important to Montenegrins.

“If you give up sovereignty, you ought to have some sort of control mechanism: you give up on something so that you gain on something”, said Spajic, adding that in that case, Montenegro would become something like a European economy carrier, similar to Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

“And this model is totally ok, it’s a pragmatic exchange where you’re not forced to agree with everything the EU does. You can take most of it, but you can still have some carveouts”, said Spajic.

According to him, if Montenegro does not accede according to the current EU membership model, then it will become something like that.

“And then you’ll have to live with Montenegro being the next Switzerland in the Balkans. I don’t know if they want that”, Spajic said.

Speaking about the potential outcome in which Montenegro would become an EU member without the right to veto, Spajic noted that the country has been fully aligned with the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) for 13 years.

Addressing his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama, Spajic said that Albania has been aligned with the CFSP for a decade, adding that it makes no sense to doubt that the two countries would behave differently once they become EU members.

Rama responded to Spajic that he should not persist with this narrative “because Montenegro will no longer be a frontrunner on the EU path”.

He said that he supports the membership model without the right to veto.

“When they [EU member states] see us, they say – “Oh my God, we have more troublemakers coming to the table and veto our decisions”, which to me makes sense, this frustration. So I’ve advocated for a long time for getting us in as members with a different status”, said Rama.

He added that such a model would be more than welcome for him.