EU official: “99% certainty” Georgia will get visa liberation in 2016
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It can be said with almost 99 percent certainty that a visa free regime will be introduced for Georgia next year,” believes Andrejs Mamikins, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Georgia.
He added it was "to some extent unfair” not to grant Georgia a visa free regime with the EU while it granted such a regime to Moldova, Mamikins told Azerbaijani new agency Trend.az yesterday.
He noted Georgia and Moldova were "quite equal” in terms of their territories, populations, current territorial problems, geographical locations and geopolitical importance and he believed if one country was granted a visa free regime, the other country should also be offered the same deal.
Andrejs Mamikins, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Georgia. Photo by European Union webpage.
The European Union (EU) official said Georgia had done its utmost in terms of legislation changes and implementing reforms to meet the required obligations necessary for visa free travel with the EU.
On another note Mamikins said a way Georgia could show its loyalty to the EU policy, the country could accept several Syrian refugees who had fled from their homeland and the aggressive actions of the radical Islamist group ISIS.
"Georgia has fulfilled many significant obligations and should keep following the same path in order to get positive recommendation at the end of the year in terms of visa liberalisation,” believes European Union (EU) top official Federica Mogherini.
European Union (EU) top official Federica Mogherini hopes Georgia will soon receive "good news” about its visa liberaliation ambitions.
The European migrant crisis will not hamper Georgia’s visa liberalisation pace, says a European Union (EU) envoy in Georgia.
European Council President Donald Tusk thinks it is possible for Georgians to travel without visas to European Union (EU) countries in 2016.
"Georgia's progress has been significant in a short period of time" but the country "still needs to address the remaining recommendations” says the European Commission in its latest report on Georgia's implementation of its Visa Liberalisation Action Plan (VLAP).
Georgia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs has high expectations of an upcoming Council of Europe (CoE) report because the Ministry has fulfilled all its obligations necessary to gain a visa-free regime.
Parliament of Georgia today adopted a statement that will be sent to relevant structures of the EU prior to the December 15 release of a Council of Europe (CoE) report whether Georgia had met all its obligations towards visa liberalisation with the EU.
“Using the word blood is unacceptable”
Mamikins said this to Georgia’s Public Broadcaster (GPB) yesterday while commenting on the leak of a secret video recording where Georgia’s ex-president and United National Movement (UNM) party members discuss a scenario to overthrow the authorities after the election.
"I have expressed my personal willingness to see Georgia as a political part of the European Union in the future. Of course, I am speaking about full membership”, Latvian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Andrejs Mamikins said after his meeting with Georgian PM Mamuka Bakhtadze yesterday.
The report on the implementation of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement, which has been approved by the European Parliament with 552 for and 61 against, says that Georgia has remained committed to the implementation of the Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) and is continuing its alignment with the EU standards,’ which is bringing increasing benefits.’