Georgia’s PM:” Now it’s time for EU countries to make a decision”

Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili is speaking out on the "hottest issue in Georgia right now” and is once again calling on EU member states to make a decision on Georgia’s visa liberalisation.

"Georgia has fulfilled its assignment; we have completed all the technical parts of our Visa Liberalisation Action Plan. We are absolutely in line with all the requirements set by the European Commission,” underlined the PM while speaking at a panel discussion at the Energy Forum: Energy Security - Old and New Geopolitical Paradigm held in Tbilisi today.

"Now we are in the process of consolidating the support among EU member states, because as you are aware we need a consensus in the [European] Council, the European Commission and then of course European Parliament should approve the decision,” he said while answering a question of the moderator of the discussion.

Kvirikashvili did not give any specific details about any international negotiations or discussions about Georgia’s visa liberalisation with European governments but emphasised that he understand the reasons behind the postponing of the decision to grant visa-free travel for Georgians.

PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili is speaking at a panel discussion at the Energy Forum: Energy Security - Old and New Geopolitical Paradigm held in Tbilisi today. Photo by PM's press office. 

"We understand the challenges that Europe faces: the migrant crisis and referendums in the Netherlands and the upcoming one in the United Kingdom. These are issues we understand as part of the European family. Historically we are part of the European family. We have been part of European culture and of course this is the final destination for us.”

It is not easy and we understand the mood and the challenges but all these issues like the migration crises and other internal challenges have nothing to do with Georgia’s technical readiness. We are ready, institutionally and in terms of legislation, we are ready for this,” underlined the leader of the Georgian Government.

Prime Minister Kvirikashvili also spoke about the regional threats that Georgia currently faced, its "severe security and humanitarian issues” including Russia’s ‘creeping’ occupation and ongoing borderisation of the country, the occupation of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions and violation of basic human rights in these regions, as well as cases of kidnapping of ethnical Georgians along Administrative Boundary Line.

We know it will take time, we know it will take lot of patience and very strong commitment from all members of our society but we will be very consistent despite of all these challenges, despite all the sensitivity of these issues. We believe that before the end of this year, hopefully before the elections we hope [Georgia’s visa liberalisation] will be completed by October 8. But it is up to EU member states to make this decision. Georgia has completed its part,” said Georgia’s Prime Minister.

Several times in the past few months a decision on Georgia’s visa liberalisation to Schengen zone states were postponed in Brussels. RFE/RL reported yesterday there were three countries that still didn’t agree on offering visa-free travel to Georgia. These were Germany, France and Italy. The remaining 25 EU member states were ready to finalise Georgia’s visa liberalisation.