Finance Minister: Georgia’s EU membership questionnaire submission “very important process”

The submission of the questionnaire for Georgia’s European Union membership bid is a “very important process” that will be completed in the “shortest possible time”, Lasha Khutsishvili, the Minister of Finance of Georgia, said on Monday.

Khutsishvili said the process of filling out the questionnaire would be “fully transparent” and open to “additional contributions” from parties interested in being involved.

"It is a very important process when the country is given the relevant questionnaire, which should be returned to Brussels as soon as possible in order to continue the further process of obtaining the status of a candidate for [EU] membership”, the Minister noted at a briefing after the Government meeting on Monday.

Khutsishvili added Georgian authorities were taking “all steps” to make this process “as successful as possible”, and noted he hoped the process would see Georgia receive the status of a candidate country “very soon”.

Oliver Varhelyi, the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, handed over the European Union membership questionnaire to the Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili on Monday.

The questionnaire contains 369 questions, significantly less than ones received by other EU partners. Previously, forms including about 2,000-5,000 questions were received by countries aspiring to join the Union.