EU Commissioner Varhelyi: Georgia country with “recognised European perspective”, time for encouragement
Oliver Varhelyi, the European Union Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Policy, on Tuesday called on all political actors in Georgia to work together for the country’s EU membership candidate status. Photo: Government of Georgia press office
Tweet 
Share
Oliver Varhelyi, the European Union Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Policy, on Tuesday said Georgia was a “country with a recognised European perspective” and called for a “message of encouragement” in comments following the EU-Georgia Association Council meeting in Brussels.
Speaking along with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, at a joint press conference, Varhelyi vowed the bloc’s support for Georgia’s European Integration and called on “all domestic political actors” and the civil society to work together for the “common goal”.
I think that today we need to send a message of encouragement. The moment is now to push ahead with the reforms, not to lose time or energy on internal divisions, but to work together. The progress of Georgia towards the EU will of course require time and very serious efforts by all. We are ready to mobilise all our available assistance to support you on this, and I want to underline the importance to all parties and the civil society rally around this goal. This is a unique national priority and a unique opportunity in front of the nation”, Varhelyi said.
Important to
— Oliver Varhelyi (@OliverVarhelyi) September 6, 2022
????address the 12 priorities oulined in the Commission’s Opinion
???? work towards recovery of economy
????strengthen resilience and connectivity.
Georgia belongs to Europe.
We encourage ???????? to go ahead w/ the reforms.
????press conference: https://t.co/5pJpzTSnCs pic.twitter.com/Cc9AzEUuoi
In his remarks, the Commissioner recommended Georgia to focus on the implementation of the 12-point conditions to strengthen the rule of law, implement necessary justice reforms, increase the fight against corruption, eliminate the “excessive influence of vested interests” in economic, political, and public life and empower the independence of the media.
And I want to assure you that of course we will closely follow and support Georgia in this work. Because next year, hopefully, as we will assess your progress as part of our enlargement reporting exercise, I do hope that we will be able to evaluate the progress made in a positive way and to explain to the Member States the track record that you would be establishing by then, and hopefully, the time and quality of reforms will show determination and delivery”, Varhelyi stated.
In a bid to “communicate clearly” on the advantages of EU-Georgia cooperation, the Commissioner stressed the Eastern Partnership Economic and Investment Plan could generate “massive” public and private investments worth at least €3.9 billion in Georgia only, while pointing out “to fully deliver on this potential, a supportive investment climate with legal certainty is essential”.
At the 7th EU- Georgia Association Council with HRVP Borrell and PM @GharibashviliGe we went through the priorities of the common ????????-???????? agenda. In these challenging times we will continue to support ???????? to deliver results so we can grant ???????? EU candidate status. #Georgia pic.twitter.com/WoQyA0dBSP
— Oliver Varhelyi (@OliverVarhelyi) September 6, 2022
Making a mention of the visa-free travel between EU and Georgia, he stated “we are happy to see travel is picking up after the COVID crisis”, noting the bloc was “working closely together on some of the challenges we face, especially as regards asylum applications by Georgian citizens in the EU which are often not well founded.”
But we explored how to further strengthen our cooperation which is already quite effective”, Varhelyi said.
The official also stated that Georgia's trade cooperation with the bloc was developing “successfully”.
Ahead of today’s EU-Georgia Association Council meeting I discussed with Prime Minister @GharibashviliGe the next steps on ???????? European path as well as the implementation of the Eastern Partnership Economic and Investment Plan. #EIP #Georgia pic.twitter.com/fheO7aneCI
— Oliver Varhelyi (@OliverVarhelyi) September 6, 2022
I am very pleased that the Georgian and EU companies will be able to bid for more public procurement calls as a result of our converging standards and our agreements. We agreed to keep on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises to use the opportunities presented by our cooperation”, said the Commissioner.
Addressing the EU, the Georgian Prime Minister said his Government had taken the European perspective with “great responsibility” to ensure the “highest political and economic compatibility with the European Union”, and stressing it was doing “its utmost” to gain the EU candidacy for the country.
The Association Council met for the first time since Georgia gained the European perspective in June and was given several months by the EU Council to address its 12-point conditions for obtaining the membership candidate status.
Georgia took the European perspective with great responsibility, to ensure the highest political and economic compatibility with the European Union, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said on Tuesday at the press conference held after the 7th session of the Georgia-EU Association Council.
The European Council’s decision to grant Georgia European perspective and the “effective steps” needed to be taken by the country to receive the membership candidate status were discussed on Tuesday in a meeting between Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative in Brussels.
The process of joining the European Union must be based on the consensus of the “whole nation” and everyone should work together, not only the government but all political parties, Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy said on Tuesday at the joint press conference with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi in Brussels.
The ruling Georgian Dream party on Friday presented its strategy for fulfilling the 12-point conditions outlined by the European Council for granting the country the European Union membership candidate status later this year.
Josep Borrell, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said the European Council had “confirmed Georgia’s clear European perspective” in June, in comments following the EU-Georgia Association Council meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.
Maka Botchorishvili, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament’s European Union Integration Committee, on Wednesday called “all political actors” in the country to “heed the message from Brussels” and take part in the work on implementing conditions for obtaining EU membership status for the country.
The European Union-Georgia Association Council highlighted the “historic importance” of the decision of the European Council to recognise the European perspective to Georgia and underlined the future of Georgia and its citizens “lies within the European Union”, in a joint press statement on Wednesday.
Ruling Georgian Dream party head Irakli Kobakhidze on Wednesday said the messages voiced during and after the recent European Union-Georgia Association Council meeting in Brussels this week on the country’s European integration process were “very positive”.
Oliver Varhelyi, the European Union Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, on Tuesday said the “most important “advice for Georgia was to focus on the conditions of the European Commission for granting the country the EU membership candidate status, and expressed his hope “all stakeholders” in the country would work on the objective.
The process of implementation of the 12-point conditions outlined by the European Union for granting Georgia the membership candidate status was discussed on Wednesday in a meeting between the Georgian parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili and Pawel Herczynski, the European Union’s newly appointed ambassador to the country.
Oliver Varhelyi, the European Union commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement, will visit Georgia to hold meetings on Tuesday, the government administration has announced.