Surrendering part of sovereignty does not mean surrendering at all. Such a comment made today Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, while responding to the Foreign Affairs Minister of Lithuania who said that “being in the European Union means giving up part of the sovereignty”.

“Of course, when a state is a member of the international community, it gives up a certain amount of sovereignty in that it shares common responsibility. Of course, being a member of the EU means that you participate in common decisions. However, giving up part of the sovereignty does not mean surrendering at all. I see sad trends in attitudes, including, based on our meeting yesterday, that sometimes there are positions towards Georgia, that some do not want to negotiate, discuss, dialogue with us, they want to give instructions, the Georgian people must follow these instructions. This is not a surrender of part of the sovereignty, it is a relationship based on guidelines. We do not share this.

This law and other issues were also on which we saw a position, because we are representatives of the EU and you want to be a member of the EU, which is what we are telling you should be the case, i.e. It should be so. This approach is unacceptable to us. This is the approach taken by our opposition and the NGO sector, which said that we should stand on one foot in order to be accepted into the EU. This means that we must follow instructions unconditionally and without any right to dispute. This approach of the opposition and NGOs shows that they actually want to be a member of the USSR, not the EU. The Soviet Union was founded on this principle, where the region did what the center said. We do not see the EU like that, the EU is not such a union. This is a union of equals, any attitude, because we tell you it should be, is a wrong attitude. The Georgian people do not deserve such an approach”, - said Shalva Papuashvili.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said yesterday that the EU does not force anyone to do anything and being in the EU means giving up part of the sovereignty.