Parliament Speaker hopes for “historic and correct” EU decision on granting candidate status to Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova

Shalva Papuashvili, the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, on Tuesday said he hoped the European Union would make a “historic and correct” decision by granting the Associated Trio countries of Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova the status of membership candidates.

Speaking after Georgia’s Prime Minister handed over the completed EU membership questionnaire to the EU Delegation Head on Tuesday, Papuashvili thanked the PM for “successfully leading the unprecedented volume” of work for completing the document ahead of schedule.

Papuashvili also expressed gratitude to the agencies and individuals involved in completing the questionnaire, praising the “several hundred public officials” whose work “almost round-the-clock” to fill out responses to the 2,669 questions in the questionnaire had accomplished the task. 

• Georgian PM hands over second part of EU membership questionnaire to EU Delegation Head

The Georgian Prime Minister handed over the questionnaire, completed three days before an EU-set deadline, to Carl Hartzell, the Head of the EU Delegation to Georgia. Garibashvili handed over the first completed part of the questionnaire to Hartzell on May 2. 

Based on the questionnaire, the European Commission will prepare an evaluation report on granting the candidate status to the country, with the relevant decision expected by the end of June.