PM vows to cooperate with “all opposition forces” for EU candidacy

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Friday said his Government and the ruling Georgian Dream party were “absolutely ready” to cooperate with “all domestic opposition forces” to implement the “common national idea” and bring the country closer to the European Union.

At a press conference with Josep Borrell, the visiting European Union High Representative, Garibashvili said his Government’s “main priority” was to “maintain peace [and] stability and ensure prosperity” for citizens.

Unfortunately, what we have observed over the past year, since these [EU] recommendations [for obtaining the status] were set out, [is that] polarisation has not decreased, but on the contrary, it has increased”, the PM said.

“Because the radical forces operating in Georgia, by their nature, their experience - I mean the [ruling] party of the previous [United National Movement] Government [now in opposition] - [who are] the most anti-European forces, are trying to sabotage this process”, Garibashvili claimed.

The Government head stressed the matter of the EU membership candidate status was being used by domestic “radical” forces to “destabilise” the country to ensure it did not receive the status.

He added his Government was “doing its best” to reduce the polarisation on the domestic political scene, but added “it is not up to our will and desire alone to settle this issue”.

This [depolarisation] is a very complex and difficult issue. In general, we understand very well that any democracy is characterised by difference in opinion - we respect it very much. We have a multi-party Parliament, [where] nine parties entered the Parliament in 2020, we have free media, very strong opposition [TV] channels, media outlets, and of course, we are doing everything to reduce polarisation”, he added.

“If we really want to end the polarisation in the country - as you said - if you really want Georgia to become a member of the European family, to become even closer, then our position is as follows: Georgia should receive the candidate status by the end of the year”, Garibashvili told Borrell.

The Prime Minister also said the Georgian authorities had “done their best” in terms of the implementation of the EU conditions “in this short period of time”.

I would single out three recommendations that are being actively worked on now; that is depolarisation - but here we need, of course, the involvement of the opposition; second, this is deoligarchisation - we will finish work on this very soon, in one to two weeks, and present an action plan, a vision of how this matter should be regulated in our country; and third - this is te judicial reform, which I talked about in detail. A lot has been done, [and] we are waiting for recommendations from the Venice Commission. After that, this recommendation will be fully implemented”, he concluded.

Garibashvili also recalled the European perspective, granted by EU bodies to the country last year, calling the development a “historic decision” and extending his gratitude to the bloc on behalf of his Government.