Parliament Speaker: joining EU, not candidate status, the goal of Gov’t

Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili on Sunday said the Georgian Government was aiming not for the European Union membership candidate status, but to join the bloc.

Papuashvili said the goal required implementation of the 2014 Association Agreement with the EU, and highlighted it as “the path” of the authorities. 

Being a [EU membership] candidate does not bring anything special - our goal is not to be a candidate, but to join the European Union. [...] Our desire to move in this direction is crucial”, he noted.

[Ruling] Georgian Dream [party] is the only party that has fixed the issue of European Union membership in its election campaign programme. [...] The membership candidate status [for Georgia] will definitely be there today or tomorrow”, the head of the Georgian legislative body said in an interview with Imedi TV.

Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili on Friday said the European Commission had formally confirmed “for the first time” that the prospect of Georgia's accession to the European Union was an “irreversible reality”, and that the country would “definitely” become a member of the EU.

The European Commission on Friday recommended the European Council to grant Georgia “European prospective” before assessing how the country meets a number of conditions for receiving the European Union membership candidate status.