EU Commission head to Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Western Balkans: you’re part of our family
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday the bloc was “incomplete” without Georgia, Ukraine and the Western Balkans. Photo: EU Commission press office
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The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Wednesday addressed citizens in countries of the Western Balkans as well as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia by telling them “you are part of our family, your future is in our Union, and our Union is not complete without you”.
In her annual address to the European parliament in Strasbourg, the official also said “we should have listened to those who know [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. To Anna Politkovskaya, and all the Russian journalists, who exposed the crimes and paid the ultimate price. To our friends in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and the opposition in Belarus”.
I want the people of the Western Balkans, of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia to know:
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 14, 2022
You are part of our family, your future is in our Union, and our Union is not complete without you!
#SOTEU pic.twitter.com/JcjI2LY6hD
Expressing support for Ukraine, von der Leyen said the EU would maintain sanctions against Russia “because now is the time for decisive action, not concession”, noting that she would visit Kyiv later on Wednesday.
In further comments, the EU official stressed Putin had not only launched Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “but also started an energy and economic war against Europe”.
She added “millions of Europeans need support to pay their energy bills”, noting some companies were producing electricity at low cost and made great margins and proposing a “cap on their revenues that will raise more than €140 billion”, in addition to a “deep reform [of] our electricity market”.
Georgia's submission of an official application for European Union membership marks a new stage of the country's relationship with the EU and in the process of its integration into the Union, the Head of the Georgian mission to the EU, Vakhtang Makharoblishvili, said in an interview released by Imedi channel on Thursday.
The working group proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party in the Parliament and tasked with revising domestic electoral laws in line with the European Commission conditions for the country’s EU membership candidacy held its first meeting on Thursday.
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.
Georgia's accession to the European Union is a “civilisational choice” of the country’s citizens and is not simply a matter of the Government, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said at a World Economic Forum panel in Davos on Wednesday.
Nacho Sánchez Amor, a member of the European parliament, on Wednesday said it was “good news” to see the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, put Georgia “on the same level as Ukraine and Moldova” in her recent address to the parliament.
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.
The European Union on Monday published an evaluation on the effectiveness and impact of the bloc’s cooperation with Georgia between 2014-2020, with the document noting the partnership “has been strategically sound and has benefitted from a strong institutional setup in its design and implementation”.
Maka Botchorishvili, the chair of the Georgian parliament’s European Union integration committee, on Tuesday said it was important to hear a “strong and unequivocal” message that the Western Balkans, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia were “parts of the European family”.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, on Thursday said the European Union wanted Georgia to “advance and succeed” on its EU path, as the country is working to meet the bloc’s 12-point conditions for receiving the membership candidate status.
The Georgian office of the Transparency International anti-corruption watchdog on Tuesday called on the ruling Georgian Dream party to amend its recently proposed bill on establishing the national anti-corruption bureau, saying the document “does not correspond” to the European Union’s conditions for granting the country the membership candidate status.
Pawel Herczynski, the ambassador of the European Union to Georgia, on Tuesday said “constructive” involvement of the country’s opposition parties, along with the government, was “critically important” for the fulfillment of the 12-point conditions set by the bloc to grant the country its membership candidate status.
Archil Talakvadze, the Georgian parliament’s vice speaker, on Wednesday said the domestic opposition had attempted to portray the conditions set by the European Union for granting the country the membership candidate status as “something very unusual and negative”, which he claimed stemmed from its efforts to act “against the country’s European integration”.
The future of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia and of their citizens lies within the European Union, a document published on Tuesday by the Council of the EU said following a meeting of Government ministers involving the bloc’s member states.
Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili on Wednesday praised the recent report by the Council of the European Union that said Georgia’s future “lies with the EU” and commended the “important steps” being made by the country in its reform process.