Parliament speaker: Georgia meets technical preconditions set by EU for candidate status
Papuashvili also noted that “unfortunately” the “radical” part of the country’s opposition had been trying to convince the European partners not to grant Georgia the candidate status, and stressed that these political groups put their political party interests first, having no values or long-term interests for their country. Photo: Shalva Papuashvili/Facebook
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Georgian parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday said Georgia had satisfied the technical preconditions for the European Union candidate status “long time ago” and in terms of technical readiness, it has been a leader of the associated trio countries of Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova.
During his official visit to Spain, Papuashvili told the media that the decision of granting the candidate status “generally” had “two dimensions” - technical assessment of the readiness of the country and the “political decision”, stressing the latter had not been “always fair”, as it had been based on different motives.
Georgia has been an outstanding country by the “objective assessment criteria” of legislative, institutional and political views and the “most important” thing is the “political decision” to be taken by the EU, so the country needs to “convince” the bloc and its member states to take a “positive decision”, the parliament speaker said.
Papuashvili also noted that “unfortunately” the “radical” part of the country’s opposition had been trying to convince the European partners not to grant Georgia the candidate status, and stressed that these political groups put their political party interests first, having no values or long-term interests for their country.
Georgian parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday said there were “unfriendly” groups outside Georgia making every effort to hinder the process of the country's European integration process.
Anri Okhanashvili, the chair of the Georgian parliament's legal affairs committee from the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday said the domestic “radical opposition” groups “must explain to the public” and Georgia’s partners “why they have sabotaged” the implementation of the European Union’s conditions for granting the country the membership candidate status.
Georgia is ahead of the fellow Associated Trio countries of Moldova and Ukraine in terms of fulfilling conditions for gaining the European Union membership candidate status, economy minister Levan Davitashvili was cited as saying by the ministry on Thursday.
In bilateral relations between Georgia and the European Union, the country will have “specific, tangible results very soon”, Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili said on Sunday, while commenting on the annual Association Agreement Implementation Report of the EU.
Georgian parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday praised Germany’s role in and support for his country’s European integration agenda, at an event in Berlin marking the 30th anniversary since the establishment of the diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Georgian parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday said the majority of the European Union conditions for granting Georgia the membership candidate status would be fulfilled by the end of December and noted that the implementation of the rest depended on the assessments of the Council of Europe's Venice Commission and the constructive cooperation of the opposition.