Ruling party head: Gov’t "doing everything” for EU membership candidate status

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Thursday said the Georgian Government was doing “everything” for the country to receive the European Union membership candidate status later this year in December.

In an interview with Imedi TV, Kobakhidze claimed Georgia had deserved to receive the candidate status last year, before the EU made a “political decision” of not granting it to the country.

We all already know that our country, our Government is doing everything for Georgia to receive the candidate status in December - this means fulfilling 12 points among them. As of June, we did everything we could do, and we proved it with the presentation we gave to the public”, Kobakhidze said.

The ruling party official also reviewed allegations by a part of the domestic opposition about the Georgian territory being used for circumvention of sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, by saying that “everything confirms that Georgia has an appropriate policy in line with the EU's priorities in this direction”.

He also told the interview the country was ready for the status "both in terms of fulfilling the [conditions for the status] and in terms of the overall picture [of readiness of institutions and legislation]”.