The Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, today confirmed his country’s “irreversible course” towards membership of the European Union (EU), exactly one year after the South Caucasus state submitted its application to become a member of the communist bloc.
“Over the past year we have intensified efforts to achieve this goal, which determines the history of Georgia and the current actions of the authorities,” Garibashvili wrote on his Facebook social network account.
According to the Georgian prime minister, the fact that the Twenty-seven granted the country a European perspective last June “brought us even closer to belonging to the European family as free peoples .”
Garibashvili stated that Georgia “has taken all steps towards convergence with European legislation and institutional improvement, towards European standards”.
The EU requires Georgia to meet 12 conditions to deepen democracy, strengthen institutions and reduce political polarisation.
The crisis between Ukraine and Russia seems to have opened an opportunity for Georgia’s aspiration to join the EU (a goal enshrined in its Constitution).
Tbilisi says it has already implemented almost all the recommendations and hopes to get candidate country status by the end of the year.
Georgia, unlike two other former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Moldova, did not achieve its 2022 goal of obtaining EU accession candidate country status.
The Twenty-seven, who recognized the progress of Georgian institutions, demanded from the Georgian authorities reforms to reduce political polarization, as well as the “de-oligarization” of the country.
