"We do not accept the 'Trojan horse', we will not give up until we fully expose this and until the government steps down," Nimanbegu said in his closing remarks.
Dragićević announced that he will start new activities tomorrow "until this crazy plan is completely exposed."
"Our overarching authority is the EC and we will seek its opinion. The last thing I want is for the EC to demand that the Agency conduct an independent investigation. I hope they will suggest something to us," said Damjanović.
Mugoša left the show due to the announcement that the Parliament would vote on laws confirming agreements with the UAE.
"If laws are adopted, they are sent to the president for constitutional review. I think they are trying to promulgate this through an urgent procedure in order to reduce the number of days the president has to analyze the laws. If he were to return some of those laws, the Assembly would have to decide again, so there will probably be a procedure until those laws are promulgated in the Official Gazette," Mugoša said before leaving.
"The investor could already buy the modules that are available and receive certain incentives for that. I think the government just rushed the agreement a little," said Damjanović.
"We don't yet know who the beach tenants are, they won't be prepared for the season... It's time to apply solutions that are present everywhere in the world, so that the beaches are free and accessible to everyone," said Nimanbegu.
"We expect a lot of activity from the Constitutional Court regarding this process. What is happening to us should wake up institutions to react, not only the Agency for the Protection of Competition," he added.
Dragićević said that they were satisfied with the number of people who showed up in front of the Parliament today for the protest, because they did not invite the general public to the rally; as he said, only local officials and civic activists were there.
"Of course we will organize broader actions, for us this is the first of five or six steps and believe me we will give them hell at every step, because for us this is the sale of Montenegro," he said.
"We are not discussing whether Albar is credible, but rather we are inserting an agreement into the legal system that is complete nonsense from the aspect of the legal framework that this country should strive for. That worries me. If we start signing other agreements like this, the legal framework will no longer be important for investors, but only for citizens. As for Albar, I am looking forward to finally seeing some investments come, because we have had stagnation for five years," Mugoša pointed out.
When asked if Alabar would build on Velika Plaža, Nimanbegu replied:
"I don't like to speak hypothetically. If Alabar wanted to, he could buy a hotel there tomorrow. These are not quality questions. If we want to determine the economic logic in advance, we are wrong, because processes are ongoing. But we must ask the question in which direction we want to develop as a society."
The host of "Reflektor" asked Nimanbegu what he wanted from Velika Plaza.
"We now have the valorization of Velika Plaza through the current way we use it, through planning documents. Is that a satisfactory way? No. We need to protect nature more. Our plan is to engage the best experts from the world and the region and to have a discussion not only on Velika Plaza, but also on how to protect other areas in Montenegro. We are not dealing with that, the census showed that in Ulcinj you have 5.000 families who have a minimum of 26.000 residential buildings. It's like that in every municipality. We don't need apartments, we need development that will improve life in 10-15 years," he pointed out.
When asked whether it was true that Nimanbegu had offered Alabaru five locations in Ulcinj in a letter to the Ministry of Spatial Planning, he answered in the affirmative.
"Listen, these are proposals, you can send proposals to anyone. It's not a secret. It's a sequence of moves to see that we want investments, but we didn't know at that moment that it was real estate development... These are some development areas, we as a local government talked and it's clear that we all need sustainable development. The government manipulated it and they said that they accepted the conclusions of the Ulcinj Municipal Assembly. At that time, we as a community were sending a signal that we were ready to talk," he explained.
"The Prime Minister is a man who does not listen to the will of the people or the mayors. He has not found time to meet with us mayors for a month. I even have information that he does not even meet with the ministers. I believe that he is no longer fit for that position... But I am sending him a message once again: this will not go away. What he intends to do is such a level of injustice, so wrong that we all have to stand up, this cannot be done in a country that is a candidate for the EU," added Nimanbegu.
When asked why Albanian parties have not yet left power, Nimanbegu replied:
"Our membership in the government is no longer in question, I think Spajić is sending a message that he will kick everyone out - let him try. Other Albanian parties are not in coalition with us, but they have given a clear signal that they do not accept this. The parties have become prisoners of whether they are in power or not. Maybe the BS does not understand the seriousness of this problem, but I explained it very clearly. Just as I tried to explain it to the Democrats. Because this is no longer a question of participation in the government, but of our European path. I do not understand which minister accepts making such a decision on WhatsApp. Isn't that shameful?".
Dragićević said that he was very concerned about the silence of the EU Delegation to Montenegro.
"Before 2020, we had a stable partner in the EU when it came to environmental devastation, urbanization, attacks on activists... What worries me is that for two days now we have had brutal attacks by PES bots on Vanja Ćalović Marković. The EU Delegation has not spoken out, while they are speaking out for much more benign things. We will see in the coming days whether Spajić has the tacit permission of the Delegation here in Podgorica, and not in Brussels. I don't know if this is to buy some peace, to return the opposition to parliament or something like that, but it is worrying," he said.
"These agreements were discussed for only 33 minutes in a WhatsApp session, and the best parts of Montenegro are being given to someone. Something is being done behind the hill, and let the Prime Minister explain what," Dragićević added.
"All of this also poses a serious reputational risk for Montenegro. I think that all those who raised this issue with the EC first, and not with domestic institutions, should not have gone that route, but rather that we should first communicate within the house. Because all of us there represent a small family that needs to join a large family. I think we are all embarrassed by this," said Damjanović. Nimanbegu said that they were forced to do it.
"When all this is happening so fast, so much is being hidden and all this is being disrupted, our entire system is at risk... Because Spajić humiliates all of us: MPs, the Parliament, local government, professionals, the NGO sector... This way of working is collapsing our system," he pointed out.
"According to my information, Spajić's goal is to push through the contract in May. It is probably already finished. That speed forced the President of the State, Mr. Knežević, me, and the civil sector to address the EC," said Nimanbegu.
"The European Commission (EC) cannot react that quickly, but we have verbal information that they will try to be as fast as possible here, and it is true that Mr. Knežević raised the issue that the Stabilization Agreement prohibits any state aid that distorts or threatens to distort competition," said Dragan Damjanović, President of the Council of the Agency for the Protection of Competition and Head of Negotiation Chapter 8.
"This second agreement, which concerns investments in real estate, clearly defines the avoidance of public procurement. From the perspective of the head of the working group, I am afraid that the EC will problematize this part. If the laws are adopted, it will be a big complication. The EC will not be satisfied with just not implementing such a law, but we will have to vote in the Parliament to remove such a law from use. We had a similar problem with Montenegro Airlines. If that happens, this Government would have to go back to sign the agreement in 6,7 months," he warned.
Mugoša said that the narrative that those who are against the agreement with the UAE are actually against investment is manipulative.
"The narrative is not clear. Another thing, there are so many illogicalities in that agreement. You are making an agreement with another country that is in our public interest. Why is that term dangerous? Because you have in the Constitution that your property is yours, unless someone declares it to be in the public interest, and then they can take your property and give you a "fair reward". In the end, this is not the first agreement with the Emirates. The current agreement with the Emirates is in the area of investment incentives and protection. In that agreement from 2012, there is arbitration, it says that natural resources cannot be part of this story, there is investment protection, everything that this new one does not have... The question arises as to why? The essence of this is that the state of Montenegro gives everything, it agrees on plans with the investor, and you know what the UAE government gives - it encourages the investor and exempts itself from any dispute if it arises. Never has such an agreement been adopted in Montenegro, and there have been dozens of them on economic cooperation," Mugoša pointed out.
"I spoke today in the corridors of the Parliament with MPs from all parties and I can guarantee that the government has absolutely not convinced them that they should vote for this agreement. Privately and in an unofficial conversation, they are absolutely not convinced, they do not believe in this agreement, but they will vote and that worries me greatly and I am ashamed as a citizen of Montenegro," said civic activist Aleksandar Dragićević.
He assessed that Spajić is holding this parliamentary majority hostage and that everything is happening because of his whim.
"I believe that some MPs will still not vote for this agreement, if they act according to their conscience," he added.
The President of the Municipality of Ulcinj, Genci Nimanbegu, explained why he requested that the decision on the agreement be postponed for a year.
"Surely this speed shows that there is a state of emergency in Montenegro. For our municipality, it has become a state of emergency. There are less than 40 days from the appearance of the beach tenant to the adoption of such a controversial law... Everyone who reads carefully and who loves their city can see that it is so hollow, so fabricated that this rush only shows that it is about someone wanting to quickly go through the entire procedure and we have prevented it for now. The consequences, if this law is adopted, the consequences could be very, very severe, even economic. I defend the interests of our local government, but also of all local communities in Montenegro," he pointed out.
Nimanbegu assessed that there is currently a majority in the Assembly that would vote for laws that would confirm agreements with the UAE, but he expressed hope that some of the MPs who said they would vote for them would change their minds.
"The statements of the Bosniak Party (BS) are that they will accept the agreement, as well as the New Serbian Democracy (NSD), the Democrats, the Europe Now Movement (PES), and that makes up a volume of 43 MPs. I don't remember what the statements were from the SNP. We are still trying to convince the MPs of those parties that this is not an ordinary vote, but a crucial vote in their lives. I am surprised that the PES is slowly turning into something completely opposite to its name and I am sorry that they have become prisoners of the Prime Minister, because I am sure that they intimately feel that this is a completely wrong decision," the Mayor of Ulcinj is convinced.
The head of the Social Democrats parliamentary group and representative of the European Union, Boris Mugoša, said that he expects the debate on the Bill on the ratification of the agreement between Montenegro and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to last until the early morning hours.
"They obviously received some kind of instruction that it had to be completed today," he said.
Bonus video:
