Georgia welcomes EU decision to fast-track AA signing

Georgia has reinforced its readiness to sign the Association Agreement (AA) with the European Union (EU) in June - two months earlier than planned.

The country’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibahsvili welcomed European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso’s statement which claimed EU authorities had decided to speed up the process of signing the document.

Georgia’s first diplomat, Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze, also expressed her happiness about the EU decision. She said this had happened not only because the EU was interested in speeding up the process but also because Georgia was ready to sign the important document.

"We have already presented the Georgian text of this agreement. Georgia meets all the requests which we have to meet before signing the AA,” Panjikidze claimed.

The EU Commission agreed bring forward the signing of the AA document with Georgia and Moldova at the European Council’s first session on the Ukraine crisis yesterday.

"Very happy we also agreed at EUCO to sign Association Agreement with Georgia and Moldova no later than June 2014,” Barroso wrote on his Twitter account after the session.