Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Friday said it was “unlikely” for any European Union member state not to back the European Commission’s decision to recommend the European Council to grant the country the membership candidate status in December.
In his comments with the media following a panel discussion at the Paris Peace Forum, Garibashvili noted his Government had “positive expectations” and would have “close coordination” with the European partners.
As for the expectation, you mentioned the expectation and the decision to be accepted on December 15 by 27 countries. We continue to work intensively, the [Georgian] Minister of Foreign Affairs visited almost all countries and I personally communicated with almost all European leaders”, Garibashvili said.
The Government head stressed that the European Commission’s decision had put an end to “groundless and unsupported speculations” that his Government had done nothing in this regard.
We directly heard claims that the country does not deserve the status, the country is not ready, etc. At this time, the countries that are far behind us are Ukraine, Moldova. Even today we are ten times ahead of both countries and everyone else. But I want to say that the fact is the fact and the truth should be told directly. Then they received the [status] and we didn't. No one remembered the [Georgian] citizens then, on the contrary, it was an attempt to sacrifice our citizens”, he continued.
The Georgian official also highlighted that the European Commission’s recommendation had stated that “the country should be granted EU membership status due to the results it achieved on its EU integration path”.
The PM added the ruling Georgian Dream party had done more for European integration than the previous governments over the last 30 years, and the country had received “everything” over the past 10 years, including the 2014 Association Agreement signed with the bloc, the free trade agreement and the visa-free travel to EU countries.