Parliament official: European partners admit denying Georgia EU membership candidate status was “mistake”

Nikoloz Samkharadze, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, on Tuesday said the country’s European partners were “not hesitant to admit” that denying Georgia the European Union membership candidate status in June had been a “mistake”.

Samkharadze noted visits by the country’s Parliamentary delegation to European capitals - including Madrid, Lisbon, The Hague, Luxembourg, Berlin and Ljubljana - over the past three weeks.

The Parliament official stressed representatives of the domestic opposition had also been present at meetings held as part of the visits, adding they “saw very well” the work being done for Georgia’s EU and NATO integration.

It is very sad that there are representatives of the opposition who, during their [separate] visit[s] to Europe say that Georgia should not be granted EU membership candidate status. In all countries [we visited together] there was unanimous support that Georgia is part of the future expansion [of EU], and this no longer causes doubts or leaves question marks”, Samkharadze said.

He also added “everyone” had confirmed Georgia’s status in being “ahead of the current candidate countries in many directions” during the visits to European capitals.

At many meetings, it was very openly said that it had been a mistake not to grant the candidate status to Georgia this summer. These statements were made at protocol meetings - not at dinners - and this is also important, because our partners do not hesitate to admit that denying Georgia candidate status was a mistake”, Samkharadze concluded.