Vice PM: setting deadlines for EU candidate status conditions fulfilment “up to EU, not opposition”

Thea Tsulukiani, the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Culture, Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia, on Friday said it was “up to the European Union and not the domestic opposition” to set deadlines for the implementation of the bloc’s conditions for granting the country its membership candidate status.

Tsulukiani was speaking after United National Movement opposition party Chair Levan Khabeishvili said his party would give the Government time until April 9 to implement the conditions. UNM has also announced a protest rally on the date.

It is not the opposition - which has turned into a group of extremists - but the European Union itself that sets the deadlines for the implementation of the 12 recommendations”, the Vice PM said, stressing the Georgian authorities would meet the deadlines set by the bloc.

“The Parliament has done a lot of work, and we thank our political Parliamentary majority for that. Of course, all deadlines will be strictly adhered to. I hope that the European Union will make a fair decision this time when it examines the dossiers of three different countries and will assess the great leap, in terms of reforms, that Georgia has implemented in the last 10 years”, she said.

Givi Mikanadze, an MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday said the Parliament was on course to complete implementing the priorities - set out by the European Commission last year - by the end of its spring session, which closes on June 30.

Oliver Varhelyi, the European Union Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, on Tuesday said the implementation of the bloc’s conditions was the “only way” for the country to move forward on its European path.