Ruling party head: Gov’t has “optimistic expectations” about EU bid

Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Sunday said that the Georgian authorities had “optimistic expectations” about the country’s European Union membership bid.

Kobakhidze said “the main thing” was that the EU authorities’ decision on granting Georgia the candidate status was “not as unfair” as the European Parliament resolution on violations of media freedom and the safety of journalists in Georgia, adopted on Thursday.

He also said If the application for membership was considered “fairly” by the European Commission, Georgia “deserved” the membership candidate status “in all cases”.

We deserve it [EU membership candidate status] more than Ukraine and Moldova. This is the reality. Therefore, we have optimistic expectations. However, in the end, it is all up to the European Union to decide, and let's see what decision will be made. The main thing is that this decision is not as unfair as the European Parliament resolution adopted a few days ago”, the GD official said in an interview with Imedi TV.

Archil Talakvadze, the Vice Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, on Friday said the resolution on violations of media freedom “diverges from reality”, “lacks fairness” and “contains distorted facts”.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Saturday said he remained “optimistic” that a “sensible decision” would be made by the European Commission on the country’s EU membership bid, which he said would be in the “best interest of both sides”.