Georgians may travel to the EU visa-free from 2015

Georgian citizens may have visa-free access to the European Union next year.

Georgian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Tamar Beruchashvili said she could not benchmark a specific date but she hoped the visa liberalization process will be completed by 2015.

She claimed the Visa Liberalization Action Plan, handed to Georgia by the EU, consisted of two phases - legislative and implementation.

After each phase, the EU sent representatives to assess the situation and generate recommendations for the next steps.

"We received only one group of monitors so far and they gave positive feedback. Most of the legislative part has processed properly, the Deputy Minister said, adding that the next EU group was expected to arrive this spring.

Beruchashvili assumed the implementation part of the process would begin in summer 2014.

"First Georgia has to do its homework properly, get a positive feedback and only after this the EU will make a political decision to let Georgian citizens enter its member countries with no visa requirement, Beruchashvili stated.

The EU and Georgia began negotiations on establishing a visa-free regime for Georgian citizens when the previous government was in power. However the country only received the Action Plan from the EU at the end of last year.

EU citizens are allowed to enter Georgia without a visa.