PM highlights “main message” of “deserved” EU candidacy at Granada Summit

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Thursday said his Government’s “main message” at the European Political Community Summit in Granada would be that the country “deserved” to receive the European Union membership candidate status. 

In his remarks at the third edition of the Summit, Garibashvili noted the recognition as a country with a European perspective was the “main” priority.

Our main message will be that Georgia deserves candidate status. [...] Now it is necessary to take a further step on the part of the European counterparts for the country to receive a deserved status. This is my main message. Of course, the topic of discussion will be the geopolitical situation, the most difficult situation in the region, the war in Ukraine and, therefore, the challenges for us”, Garibashvili said.

The Government head stressed there was “no shortcut” as the European integration was a “long-term” path that “every country must take to become a member state of the European Union”.

At this stage, from the point of view of our country, I would like to tell you that we should focus on the next stage, which is of symbolic importance, although it is quite important - this is the candidate status. We have heard many statements. This, on the one hand, gives us reason for optimism and hope, and on the other hand, we must know that there are no shortcuts”, he told the Georgian media.

The PM also expressed his belief that “common sense, rationality, foresight and strategic thinking” would prevail in the European Union and Europe would not make the “same mistake they made last year when they treated Georgia unfairly” in not granting the country the status.

I think that we explained everything to our European counterparts, they shared [our] arguments. My main argument is that the country has achieved very tangible results, in all directions. We are ahead of Ukraine, Moldova, Bosnia-Herzegovina, which received candidate status last year, and we did not, unfortunately”, he continued.

He also said his Government would “not tolerate injustice and such an oppressive and abusive attitude”, adding it would have a “very principled conversation with all our European counterparts” to achieve the positive outcome on the status.