FM announces EU-Georgia Association Council meeting following membership candidacy recommendation

Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili on Sunday announced a meeting of the European Union-Georgia Association Council “in the near future”, by saying the country would be represented at the discussion “in a new capacity” following the European Commission’s decision to recommend the European Council to grant the country the membership candidate status. 

In his remarks over the matter, Darchiashvili noted the President of the European Commission had also stated Georgia's progress had been “properly” assessed.

“Accordingly, when it is about the efforts made [the Georgian Government] beyond the 12 conditions [set out by the EU for granting the country the membership candidate status], it is about the [2014] Association [Agreement] agenda between Georgia and the European Union”, Darchiashvili said in an interview with Imedi TV. 

In the near future, we will have an Association Council [meeting], where Georgia will be represented in a new reality as a country that was recommended to become a candidate and member country. We will discuss specific recommendations with partners. We will have a very dynamic discussion on the previous recommendations and on the new recommendations as well”, the top Georgian diplomat continued. 

Darchiashvili also stressed that once the country officially received the candidate status in December, the Government would “start working intensively with our partners to open a dialogue to move to the negotiation phase”.