Irish Senate Chair - EU enlargement should include Georgia

Jerry Buttimer, the Chair of the Irish Senate, on Friday said the position of the Irish Parliamentary Friendship Group was that the European Union enlargement should include Georgia.

In his comments to the media Buttimer said he had a “good discussion” with the Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on a “number of issues” regarding the country’s application for membership in the bloc.

Buttimer said the benefits EU membership had brought to his country were “obvious” and added Ireland had “always supported” Georgia's EU aspirations.

He said the bloc’s evaluations and analysis of Georgia’s progress on the path to membership, and of the fulfilment of the recommendations outlined by the European Commission for granting it the membership candidate status later this year, should be completed “on time”.

He also said Ireland and Georgia had a “good working relationship and mutual understanding” regarding the latter’s path to EU membership and said he hoped the question would be resolved “sooner rather than later”.