Parliament Speaker: “symbolic” that Georgia’s EU membership bid was signed by PM Irakli Garibashvili

The signing of Georgia’s European Union membership application by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili was “symbolic”, Shalva Papuashvili, the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, said on Friday.

Papuashvili drew historical parallels between Garibashvili’s signing of the Association Agreement with the EU in his capacity as the Prime Minister in 2014, and of the country’s application for receiving the status of a candidate state this week.

“It is symbolic that, just like [with] the Association Agreement with the EU, Irakli Garibashvili signed the EU membership bid, then and now as the Prime Minister”, the Parliament official said at a briefing.

Papuashvili also said Georgia was a leader between the three countries - Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova - of the Associated Trio in terms of their implementation of the Association Agenda with the EU “by all objective assessments”.

The Parliament Speaker added, “we expect that the EU will discuss the expedited [membership bid] procedure in light of this changed context [of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine]”.

The Georgian official also pointed to what he called “attempts by some [political opposition] groups to attribute this initiative [of the EU membership application] to themselves” but said the substance of the move with the bid was more significant in public discourse.

In his comments, Papuashvili also highlighted the “substantive part of Europeanness” as being more important than the “formal part of the [membership] status” for the country.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili signed the EU membership bid on Thursday, announcing Georgia was closer to the Union “as never before.” Through the submission, the Council of the European Union was asked to start the relevant procedures for Georgia's accession to the Union.