Hungarian PM says EU’s 2022 rejection of membership candidate status for Georgia “very disappointing”

He also emphasised the bloc needed to determine whether its enlargement was a “political or merit-based process” and added the denial of the status to Georgia was “quite unfair” and needed to be “corrected as soon as possible”. Photo via Government Administration

Agenda.ge, 12 Oct 2023 - 19:10, Tbilisi,Georgia

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Thursday said his Government was “very disappointed and angry” at the European Council’s 2022 decision not to grant Georgia its membership candidate status while granting it to the countries that were “far behind” in terms of their qualifications.

Orbán, on a visit to Georgia, said the country should be “given the opportunity to get closer” to the EU, an outcome he said was “also in European interests”.

He also referred to the previous year's meeting between the two governments, highlighting the shared historical experience that "peace has always been better than war" and emphasising the need for a "constant fight" in international politics to resolve disputes through peace agreements as the "most important thing for development".

The visiting PM added Georgians and Hungarians were “standing together and doing everything to pursue this path”.

The head of the Hungarian Government also said the economic growth of the EU over the past 20 years was due to the accession of countries of the Central European region to the bloc, which he said implied the EU “needs such dynamism, such energy, such people who want to work, be creative, who have ambitions”, and noting Georgia “especially deserved” the status.

He also emphasised the bloc needed to determine whether its enlargement was a “political or merit-based process” and added the denial of the status to Georgia was “quite unfair” and needed to be “corrected as soon as possible”.

Orbán claimed the bloc could not modernise its energy system and economy without “close cooperation” with Georgia, and added Green Energy Development infrastructure programmes and the Green Corridor for supplying green energy from Azerbaijan to Europe were “vitally important” for the EU and would serve as a source of economic growth for all participating member states “for many years”.