Borrell: Georgia will be granted “automatic” EU candidate status when criteria are met

Josep Borrell, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on Thursday said Georgia would be “automatically” granted the EU membership candidate status once the reform agenda criteria outlined by the European Commission are addressed.

Borrell stressed the Commission’s granting of “European perspective” to Georgia was a “step forward” and added citizens of the country should not look at the result “in a negative way” due to the body’s conditioning of the outright candidate status on reform criteria.

Now, they [Georgians] have a clear path. They have things to be done, the schedule, so this is an important step forward. Continue working on that, you are on the good track. When these criteria [priorities set by European Commission] are met, the candidate status will be granted automatically”, the EU official told reporters.

The European Commission on Friday recommended to the Council that Georgia should be given the perspective to become a member of the European Union. The body recommended that the country be granted the membership candidate status once the priority items on the reform agenda are addressed. 

The Commission will monitor Georgia's progress to address these priorities and report on them by the end of 2022.