Irish Senate adopts resolution calling on EU to grant Georgia membership candidate status
The Senate of Ireland on Tuesday adopted a resolution calling on the European Union and its institutions to grant Georgia the membership candidate status. Photo: www.oireachtas.ie
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The Senate of Ireland on Tuesday adopted a resolution calling on the European Union and its institutions to grant Georgia the membership candidate status.
The resolution recognised the “progress” demonstrated by Georgia and strongly recommended keeping the “political momentum” by granting the country the candidate status at the European Council meeting this month.
Irish senators also recognised Georgia’s “accomplishments” on the path of European integration and encouraged it to maintain “tangible progress” in the implementation of necessary reforms for further political and economic integration with the European Union.
We commend the people and Government of Georgia for their successful reforms in recent years towards consolidating democracy, ensuring human rights protection, rule of law, media freedom and good governance as well as strengthening government transparency and judicial independence”, the resolution said.
In the document, the legislators recommended the Irish Government to support Georgia in receiving the status, which they said would move the country closer to EU membership.
It is critical that the decisions taken on the Associated Trio countries [of Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova] are synchronised. [...] Leaving any of the country behind in this process will bear a devastating effect on the society’s pro-European feelings, while giving a ‘green light’ to Russia for unpredictable destructing actions”, the document noted.
Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday expressed his hope Denmark would support Georgia’s European aspirations and granting the country the European Union membership candidate status.
Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger on Tuesday urged German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to support Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova as European Union membership candidates, while also calling on the German leader to see the horrors of the war in Ukraine with his “own eyes”.
Georgia is requesting the European Union membership candidate status the country has “deserved” through its 30-year “struggle for democracy” and reforms implemented by the Government over the past nine years, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said on Monday.
Gunther Krichbaum, an MP from the Christian Democratic Union in the Bundestag, on Monday said it was “in Germany’s interest” to “open a path” to the European Union for Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.
German Ambassador to Georgia Hubert Knirsch on Wednesday said he would participate in a public rally planned in Tbilisi in support of the country’s European Union integration and announced by Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili.
A number of German political parties, including the opposition CDU/CSU faction, have launched a motion supporting a “rapid granting” of European Union membership candidate status to the Associated Trio countries Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, German media reported on Tuesday.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday said the European Union membership candidate status must be granted “as soon as possible” to the Associated Trio countries of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.
Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili on Friday said if the opinion of the European Commission on the European Union candidacy of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia was “based on merit”, then Georgia deserved the membership candidate status.
Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Friday said Georgia was ahead of Ukraine and Moldova, the fellow states with European Union membership bids, in “all parameters” of EU integration.
Georgia’s European Union integration, the supportive resolutions adopted by the Irish Senate, and relations between two states were discussed on Thursday in a meeting between Lasha Darsalia, the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and Joe McHugh, the Chair of the Irish Parliament's European Union Affairs Committee.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Wednesday discussed bilateral ties, prospects for further strengthening of cooperation and his country’s aspirations to join the European Union with Sean O’Farrell, the Chairman of the Lower House of the Irish Parliament.
Georgia’s European integration and the progress of the fulfilment of the recommendations outlined by the European Commission for granting it the membership candidate status were discussed on Friday in a meeting between the Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili and Jerry Buttimer, the Chair of the Irish Senate, on the sidelines of the European Conference of Presidents of Parliament in Dublin.
Jerry Buttimer, the Chair of the Irish Senate, on Friday said the position of the Irish Parliamentary Friendship Group was that the European Union enlargement should include Georgia.