In geopolitics, size sometimes matters in a "reverse" way.
That's what the new Prime Minister of Montenegro, Milojko Spajić, who visited Brussels on Monday with the task of convincing European Union officials that his (small) country deserves the 28th place at the table — exactly the one left by a much larger former member, Great Britain, thinks so. A politician.
That portal writes that Spajić, a 36-year-old Europhile who was a political outsider until three years ago, said that his country of only 620.000 people would serve as a perfect easy win for the EU at a time when it desperately needs to prove that the European project - and its ability to grow geographically - still works.
"We want to be part of Europe in all forms," he said in an interview with Politiko.
"It will be a strong message to the entire region that Montenegro is 'low-hanging fruit'... an easy target for the EU," says Spajić.
Montenegro is among the five candidate countries for EU membership in the Western Balkans, along with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Serbia. Kosovo, which is not universally recognized as a full sovereign nation by all EU members, remains a "potential candidate".
In addition to Montenegro, the two other countries that have taken the lead among the Balkan countries in the generally long process of joining the EU, Albania and North Macedonia, have more than 2 million inhabitants.
Outside the Western Balkans, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova are also EU candidate countries. And Turkey nominally remains on that list. Across Western European countries, there has been an electoral shift towards xenophobic and Eurosceptic far-right parties.
Indeed, Brexiteers succeeded in 2016, thanks in part to intimidation over the influx of citizens from Turkey - despite the low likelihood that it will join the EU in the foreseeable future.
Which is why the small size of Montenegro is a plus, according to Spajić. "It's not a big burden for anyone to be part of the club."
Fueled by renewed fears of growing Russian influence in its backyard after the invasion of Ukraine, the EU is stepping up efforts to move towards an enlarged union, with European Council President Charles Michel pushing for a 2030 timeline.
Spajić, who promised to "cross the goal" by 2028, attributes his optimism to Montenegro's almost seven-year membership in NATO, as well as the absence of tensions in the region, which a century ago was known as the "powder keg" of Europe.
"We don't have any problems with our neighbors," he said. This includes Serbia, which, according to Politiko, was part of one country with Montenegro in the post-Soviet era until 2006.
"We have an excellent economic relationship with Serbia. ... Trade is very large," Spajić stressed.
"Montenegro can be a kind of honest mediator and can help to bridge the missing links with different ethnic groups," he added, promising that his country can be "very, very, very productive" in "solving some of these issues that they have been suffering for decades."
However, the EU had reservations about Montenegro's path - at least before Spajic's centrist Europe Movement won the elections in October.
Last year's report by the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee warned of "the country's failure to build consensus on issues of national interest and the lack of inter-party dialogue, which delayed progress on EU-related reforms and plunged Montenegro into deep political and institutional crises." .
Noting that "the rule of law was a big challenge for us in the past", Spajić highlighted his reforms and policies since coming to power, including the completion of the national census - a sensitive ethnic issue in Montenegro - as well as the filling of seats in the Judicial Council, an independent body competent for the appointment of judges, after a 10-year break.
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