Hungarian, Lithuanian, Finnish, Irish officials support EU enlargement, highlight Georgia’s progress

The state secretaries for European Union affairs of Hungary and Ireland, János Bóka and Peter Burke, as well as Jovita Neliupšienė, the Lithuanian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Anders Adlercreutz, the Finnish Minister for European Affairs, on Wednesday expressed their support for EU enlargement policy in their comments on the sidelines of the meeting of the General Affairs Council in Brussels.

The Georgian people and the Government have done a lot to meet the conditions for [the EU membership] candidate status, and we welcome that the Commission has made this recommendation [to the European Council to grant Georgia the candidate status]”, Bóka said.

Lithuanian Deputy Minister Neliupšienė noted her country supported “all who fulfil” the EU recommendations, “especially the Georgian people”, adding there were “some issues needed to be completed” to make a “historic decision” and grant the candidate status to the country.

The EU has to recognise the reforms the aspirant countries have carried out, despite being “under enormous pressure, hybrid attacks, [and] Russian aggression”, she emphasised.

Adlercreutz said Finland “knows what it means to be between the EU and Russia”, highlighting the importance of EU membership for Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, “Russia will continue to destabilise the region, which is one of the reasons why EU enlargement is an important issue”, he added.

Ireland is a strong supporter of EU enlargement. [...] We also firmly support a merit-based process. The countries should comply with the values on which the EU stands, [...] If the conditions are met, we support giving the countries the opportunity”, Burke said in his comments.

The European Commission last week recommended the European Council to grant Georgia the candidate status. The final decision on the country’s candidacy will be announced in December.