Justice Minister highlights Ministry’s role in implementing EU candidacy recommendations

Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze on Friday highlighted the role of the Ministry in the Government’s implementation of the recommendations outlined by the European Commission in 2022 for the European Council to grant the country the European Union membership candidate status next month.

Bregadze told the country’s Parliament his office’s participation in the work involved implementation of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, combating trafficking and drug addiction and migration management.

He said the Ministry had held a “number of meetings” with ministers of Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Finland, Croatia and Cyprus to introduce practice of legal forums and discuss matters of harmonisation of Georgian legislation with European law.

At all these meetings [...] absolutely all ministers supported the granting of the candidate status to Georgia after we informed them about the implemented reforms with relevant facts - they directly said Georgia deserves a fair decision”, the Minister told MPs.

Bregadze said his office would lead the process of harmonising the country’s law with EU legislation, and added a “special programme” had been created to track the progress and provide a “practical guide” for civil servants on the EU framework.

The latter will be used to make understanding of EU legislation mandatory for legal professionals along with the Georgian constitution, he told lawmakers.