Parliament Speaker: “important to fix mistake” of EU not granting candidate status to Georgia
In an interview for Imedi TV, Papuashvili stressed the country should receive the membership candidate status from EU authorities. Photo: Parliament of Georgia
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Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday said the European Union had made a "mistake" by not granting a membership candidate status to Georgia last year, adding it was now “important" to see the error "fixed".
In an interview for Imedi TV, Papuashvili stressed the country should receive the membership candidate status from EU authorities.
Georgia should receive the membership candidate status. This is what we are told in all [European] capitals. This is the mood - that [last year] the EU made a mistake by not granting the candidate status to Georgia, and it is important that this mistake is fixed”, Papuashvili said.
The Speaker said Georgian authorities were doing “everything” to ensure the country received the status, in a reference to the ongoing implementation of the EU's conditions for the outcome.
We are of course doing everything to ensure that if the decision is based on merit, the European Union has no argument not to make such a decision. As for its political part [of the decision], we hope that there will be a positive decision in this regard as well”, Papuashvili concluded.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias on Thursday once again confirmed his country’s support for Georgia's European integration and acknowledged its progress in the process in a meeting with his Georgian counterpart Ilia Darchiashvili.
Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili and his Slovak counterpart Rastislav Káčer on Tuesday signed a protocol on cooperation between the foreign services of the two countries that “strengthens Slovakia’s practical assistance on Georgia’s European integration path”.
Paweł Herczyński, the Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia, on Monday called on the domestic opposition to remain in the Parliament and take a “constructive” approach on the ongoing work for implementing the European Union conditions for granting the country the membership candidate status.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Thursday discussed bilateral cooperation and his country’s European Union integration prospects with the visiting Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gordan Grlić Radman.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili will deliver an address at the annual Conference of Speakers of the European Union Parliaments in Prague, the Parliament press office said on Sunday.