Parliament Speaker: NGOs, political spectrum must be engaged in “convincing” EU to “correct mistake” on Georgia’s membership candidacy

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday said the political spectrum and non-governmental organisations of the country must be “engaged in convincing” the European Union that the bloc should “correct the mistake” of not granting Georgia its membership candidate status last year.

“We must convince everyone that Georgia deserves, and even back then deserved, the membership candidate status. Moreover, we must now prove to and tell the European Union that the mistake was not only in not granting us the status - the main mistake that the European Union made is that it left us one step behind Ukraine and Moldova when we are the leader in this trio, and this mistake should be corrected”, Papuashvili said. 

In his remarks, the Parliament official urged the NGO sector and the domestic political opposition to engage in the process.

“Today, the opposition, the NGO sector and everyone should be engaged in this. Instead, everyone is engaged in trying to throw a stick in the wheels of the European [integration] cart of the Georgian state”, he claimed.

“Today’s Georgia has the most disorganised opposition in 30 years - they are an opposition not to the Government, but to Georgia”, Papuashvili concluded.