Parliament official highlights “many stages” remaining on Georgia’s EU accession path

Maka Botchorishvili, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament's European Union Integration Committee, on Thursday said there would be “many stages” in the process of Georgia’s accession to the European Union, following the European Commission’s recommendation for the country to be granted the membership candidate status. 

The Commission’s decision on Wednesday adopted the 2023 Enlargement Package, recommending opening accession talks with Ukraine, Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina and granting the membership candidate status to Georgia.

Of course, in this process, there will be various recommendations that Georgia must implement. Many of them are naturally related to the basic principles on which any democratic state that wants to join the European Union is based, and to a large extent such recommendations are related to the strengthening of democracy in the country”, Botchorishvili said.

In comments on expectations from the country, the Parliament official added it was “important for any democratic state” to hold elections in a “fair and free” environment, and further pointed out Georgia had “repeatedly shown that such things can be done”.