Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Monday said the past year had been marked by the “very important, positive” event of the “success” of the country’s European integration, in comments at the Ambassadors Conference, an annual event bringing together heads of Georgian diplomatic missions and units of the foreign office.
Garibashvili told the Conference his Government had presented a “clear roadmap” for the integration process to the public and international partners after receiving the European Commission’s recommendations in June for granting the country the membership candidate status.
The PM said the plan had been designed with the aim of “thoroughly, correctly and effectively” fulfilling the recommendations, and praised the role of the Parliament and a part of domestic opposition that became involved in working groups with the ruling Georgian Dream party to meet the conditions.
He also noted the European Council’s granting of the European Union membership candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova “in advance” in June - while Georgia was only granted a European perspective - had been a “political decision” due to Ukraine being at war and Moldova “in a state equal to war”.
Garibashvili pointed out Georgia was “two to three points ahead” of the two fellow membership aspirant countries “in all directions” relevant to membership status criteria.
He also said his Government had “meticulously fulfilled all conditions” set by the European Commission, with the remainder of the process ongoing into next year, and added the Government has sent some of the related domestic bills to the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission and was waiting for its conclusions on the legislative initiatives.