Chances for Georgia’s EU candidacy have “substantially increased” - ruling party MP

Beka Davituliani, an MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday claimed chances for Georgia’s obtaining of the European Union membership candidate status in December had been “substantially increased”. 

In his press comments, the lawmaker claimed Tbilisi was expected to receive the status “with certain conditions”, similarly to the process in the cases of Ukraine and Moldova last year. 

He further said the Georgian authorities were “correct” in claims on the bloc’s refusal in 2022 to grant Georgia the status having been motivated by “solely a geopolitical factor”, and slammed a part of the domestic opposition for their “unfounded allegations” over the Government's fault in the rejection. 

Now, when the granting of the status is practically decided, the opposition says it is only due to the geopolitical situation and not to the Government. Of course, the issue is related to geopolitics, but it also has its political dimension, and the opposition refused to become involved in the Government's work to meet the candidacy conditions”, Davituliani said. 

The lawmaker said “only the Government” could be credited for the implementation of the reform agenda outlined by the EU last year for granting Tbilisi the requested status. 

The European Commission is scheduled to publish its final report on Georgia’s meeting the candidacy conditions on November 8, with the document used by the European Council to decide on the country’s status in December.