Georgian PM: If Europe wants to end polarisation in Georgia they should grant EU candidate status
PM Garibashvili told the Parliament in a plenary session the decision to grant the country the status it applied for last year would “remove all questions, all speculation”. Photo: PM's press office
Tweet 
Share
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Friday said if Europe “really wanted” to end political polarisation in Georgia, the bloc should grant the country the European Union membership candidate status.
Garibashvili told the Parliament in a plenary session the decision to grant the country the status it applied for last year would “remove all questions, all speculation”, and added the European Council’s decision to grant the country a European perspective - instead of the full status it granted Moldova and Ukraine - in 2022 had been a “mistake” and had exacerbated the polarisation of the domestic political scene.
If we look at whether polarisation has decreased over the course of a year or not, probably no one would agree that it has. On the contrary, we have seen destabilisation attempts after that - demonstrations in last June [against the presence of Russian MP Sergey Gavrilov in the Georgian parliament], now March demonstrations [against the proposed and ultimately shelved bill on transparency of foreign influence]”, he pointed out.
Photo: PM's press office
Polarisation has increased [while] members of the Parliament [from the opposition] do not participate in the working groups created for [fulfilling] 12-point recommendations [issued by EU authorities for granting Georgia the status]”, Garibashvili said.
- Parliament Legal Affairs Committee to create 5 working groups for EU conditions for candidate status
The PM highlighted efforts made by the Government “in the shortest possible time” for receiving the status.
Although we were not given the status, the relevant working groups were created in the Parliament, and all the obligations that could be fulfilled in that short time were fulfilled. Several draft laws were sent to the Venice Commission [of the Council of Europe], now we have received [feedback], and the Parliament will make the corresponding changes. All the work will be completed from our side”, Garibashvili said.
He also told lawmakers the “first condition” for receiving the status had been to end the polarisation of the domestic scene, “and yet there was only boycott and sabotage from the opposition”.
Let's ask the society - our opposition, what is the opposition doing to reduce polarisation? To remind everyone very briefly, we have seen from them only boycott, sabotage, direct obstruction so that the country does not get the candidate status and [to ensure] destabilisation of the country, which is directly against the national interests of our country, the interests of our people”, Garibashvili said.
He also accused a part of the opposition of having “done absolutely nothing for the Europeanisation of our country”.
We have brought all these real achievements. The European perspective was, I would say, a historic decision [...] By giving the European perspective, all speculation and assumptions about where Georgia stands have been removed”, he said.
Photo: PM's press office
Europe said loudly that Georgia's place is in Europe and that the country will become a member of the European Union. On this path, of course, the next stage is the candidate status, which is merely a symbolic decision, but certainly an important decision”, Garibashvili added.
The Government head also said it was to his team’s “credit” that citizens of Georgia, “and not only the elite”, could enjoy travel to Europe “without any barriers”, in reference to the visa-free travel agreement signed in 2017 with the EU.
“Representatives of the destructive extremist opposition have been calling the Chairman of our party and his team - all of us - a ‘pro-Russian force’ since October 1, 2012 [election of Georgian Dream to Government]. Now I want to remind them and our society what results this force has brought to our country on the path of Euro-Atlantic integration. We signed an Association Agreement [in 2014], free trade, we achieved free movement to Europe [for Georgian citizens]”, Garibashvili said, adding the opposition had done “practically nothing” for European integration while in power.
Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili on Friday said the European Union flag was “flying not only at protest rallies, but in the hearts of all of us” given the “historical choice” of EU membership by the country’s citizens.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who is on her first official visit to Georgia, on Friday said Georgian citizens “belong in” the European Union and vowed her country’s support for the country’s European integration.
The implementation of the European Union’s 12-point recommendations for granting Georgia its membership candidate status was discussed on Wednesday by female members of the Georgian Parliamentary opposition and the Ambassadors to Georgia from Greece, Hungary, France and Norway, as well as Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland.
Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili will on Tuesday have “important meetings” with officials at the European Commission ahead of the body’s reports on the country’s European Union membership candidate status, Vakhtang Makharoblishvili, Georgia’s representative to the bloc, has told the media.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, on Friday said the Georgian Government and the civil society could not become members of the European Union independently of one another, in comments highlighting the necessity of their joint work on fulfilling the bloc’s conditions for granting the country its membership candidate status.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Friday thanked the country’s law enforcement and Government for having shown “firmness, strength and intelligence” during the public protests in Tbilisi against the controversial domestic bill on transparency of foreign influence earlier this month.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Friday accused the “radical wing” of the domestic opposition of “still plotting” to spark unrest in the country following “several failures” in the plan, and told the Parliament the threat of internal destabilisation was one of the “key challenges” the Government was facing.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Friday denounced a “shameful resolution” of the European Parliament on the latest developments around the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili by saying “some members” of the EP aligned with “the goals and objectives of a [domestic] destructive force”.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Friday said his Government was “standing guard” for “national interests” of the country, in comments that highlighted economic and infrastructural development over the recent years in comments to the Parliament.
The future of Georgia does not belong to the servants of foreign countries, but to the patriots, our future generation, the Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili told the country’s Parliament on Friday.