Parliament Speaker: Gov’t will receive EU candidate status “on behalf of citizens”

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday said the European Union membership candidate status would be received by the Government on behalf of the country’s citizens, as the bid for the status had been “made on their behalf” in 2022.

In his remarks over the matter, Papuashvili claimed “the ship of the [domestic] opposition, with which they have tried to prevent the process of receiving the candidate status for a year and a half, is sinking”. 

We see the last clash from the opposition. They see their ship sinking. The ship with which they have tried to interfere in any way for a year and a half in receiving the [EU] membership candidate status”, Papuashvili alleged.

The chief Georgian legislator called the alleged approach of a part of the domestic opposition as “Russian policy and Russian style”.

Of course, the Georgian Government made a bid for membership in the European Union on behalf of the Georgian citizens, and the Georgian Government will receive the EU candidate status on behalf of the Georgian citizens. This is what the country's constitution and international law are based on”, he continued.

“Those who try to reject such approaches, it is the typical Russian style, when the country involves not the state and the Government, but some groups that they like”, Papuashvili noted.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Thursday told the opening event of the Tbilisi Silk Road Forum the country had a “worthy place” in Europe and “deserved” the European Union membership candidate status.