MEP: “very happy” Georgian Gov’t has plan for fulfilling EU conditions for candidate status

Member of the European Parliament Marketa Gregorova on Monday said she was “very happy” that there was a plan and a will from the Georgian Government for fulfilling the 12-point conditions outlined by the European Union for granting the country the membership candidate status later this year.

Gregorova was commenting on the strategy presented on Friday by the ruling Georgian Dream party, and said she had considered this first step “very positively”, as the plan suggested inclusion of the domestic opposition and the civil society in the process. 

Hopefully, [t]his will help to depolarise [the domestic political environment] to some extent. Of course, all the stakeholders, the government, the opposition and the civil society, need to work together. We might see some problems [in implementation] in the future. But I am very happy to see that there’s a plan and there’s a [political] will. We were waiting for this”, the MEP said in an interview with Imedi TV.

The European Parliament official also spoke about the role of the domestic opposition in the process, stressing that the Georgian opposition needed to cooperate “as much as possible”. 

Everything is written in the plan. It sounds really good on paper. I of course know that in practice it might be more difficult, they [domestic opposition] might push aside or something, but they also need to show the will to cooperate”, she concluded in her comments.

The Political Council of the ruling Georgian Dream party met on Friday to discuss the matter of fulfilling the conditions, with Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze vowing the ruling team would ensure their fulfilment in “appropriate time and manner”.