Georgian President: time for EU “strategic decision” on Georgia’s membership

In an interview with Bloomberg news agency, Zourabichvili said the EU and Georgia “need to move forward” around the matter of the latter’s integration. Photo: Presidential Administration

Agenda.ge, 02 Feb 2023 - 12:08, Tbilisi,Georgia

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili on Wednesday called for a “strategic decision by Europe” concerning the country’s European Union membership candidate status.

In an interview with Bloomberg news agency, Zourabichvili said the EU and Georgia “need to move forward” around the matter of the latter’s integration.

You have to give us candidate status. We aren’t perfect, I know that there are things that we have not been doing, but I think that despite all that, we need to move forward”, she told the interview.

Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday said he hoped the EU would make a "fair decision" on granting Georgia the membership candidate status by the end of the year.

In June 2022, the European Council granted the membership candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, and said it would be ready to grant the same status to Georgia once the outstanding priorities outlined by the European Commission were addressed by the Georgian Government.