EU official: “99% certainty” Georgia will get visa liberation in 2016

It can be said with almost 99 percent certainty that a visa free regime will be introduced for Georgia next year,” believes Andrejs Mamikins, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Georgia.

He added it was "to some extent unfair” not to grant Georgia a visa free regime with the EU while it granted such a regime to Moldova, Mamikins told Azerbaijani new agency Trend.az yesterday.

He noted Georgia and Moldova were "quite equal” in terms of their territories, populations, current territorial problems, geographical locations and geopolitical importance and he believed if one country was granted a visa free regime, the other country should also be offered the same deal.

Andrejs Mamikins, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Georgia. Photo by European Union webpage.

The European Union (EU) official said Georgia had done its utmost in terms of legislation changes and implementing reforms to meet the required obligations necessary for visa free travel with the EU.

On another note Mamikins said a way Georgia could show its loyalty to the EU policy, the country could accept several Syrian refugees who had fled from their homeland and the aggressive actions of the radical Islamist group ISIS.