President Zourabichvili, PACE president discuss Georgia’s EU integration, strengthening cooperation

The importance of granting the EU membership candidate status to Georgia and strengthening cooperation between the country and the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe to support democratic reforms were discussed on Tuesday by the Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili and the president of the assembly Tiny Kox.

The officials stressed the candidate status would contribute to Georgia’s “further” progress and to reducing the polarisation, with Kox “once again” expressing his support for Georgia’s EU integration.

Zourabichvili highlighted the importance of “activating” cooperation between Georgia and the PACE at the local self-government level, while Kox emphasised his support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia, the president's press office said.

The conversation also touched on the significance of holding the Council of Europe’s fourth summit in Reykjavik, with the participation of the heads of the Council’s member states, in May 2023, with Zourabichvili stressing the importance of the summit in supporting Georgia and Ukraine and expressing hope that the mentioned issue would be “actively” discussed.

The Georgian president invited the secretary general of the assembly, Despina Chatzivassiliou, who attended the meeting, to the Tbilisi International Women's Conference, set to be hosted in Tbilisi in its second edition next year.