Georgian PM: Political decision on visa liberalisation with EU is made
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A political decision has been made on the visa free regime between Georgia and the European Union (EU), and only technical procedures need to be finished, said Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili at the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Summit in Riga today.
According to information shared by the Prime Minister’s press office, Garibashvili attended the Party of European Socialists (PES) forum together with European Union (EU) high officials, including EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and the Prime Ministers of Sweden and Denmark.
PM Garibashvili delivered a speech at the forum and talked about Georgia’s achievements, especially in the direction of visa liberalisation.
"Everyone agrees that in the past two years Georgia has made significant progress, including in the direction of visa liberalisation. We have made a very important leap in just six months. Unfortunately the process should have started in 2010, at the time when Moldova started. Moldova has already reached visa liberalisation because they started this process earlier than us,” he said.
"It is interesting, why [Georgia’s] previous government did not start this process. Our Government started this process. Everyone agrees that the political decision has already been made and only technical procedures need to be finished. We hope that we will finish the procedures by the end of this year and our citizens will be able to travel visa free to Europe,” Georgian PM said.
In addition, PES President Sergei Stanishev said Georgia should wait for a positive outcome from the EaP Summit.
"I think there will be good news from the Summit for Georgia, because there is a strong political will to recommit Europeans engagement towards Georgia and the other countries which signed Association Agreement (AA). I also think that there is strong political understanding that the visa issue is very important for Georgia,” he said.
"On behalf of the European Union just some technical issues need to be solved and there will be progress. And I think this shows the attitude and the support for the choice which has been made to have even stronger, closer cooperation between Georgia and EU,” he said.
Latvia supports Georgia’s European integration. This was the message Latvian President Andris Berzins told Georgian Prime Minister Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili today in Riga.
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