Ruling party head: Georgia’s EU integration has Hungarian Government’s “solid support”

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday said Georgia’s European Union integration had “solid support” from the Hungarian Government and its ruling party.

Their position on granting [EU membership] candidate status [to Georgia] on December 14-15 is unchanged”, Kobakhidze noted, who is on an official visit to Hungary, meeting the country's top officials.

• Georgian ruling party head to meet top officials in Hungary visit

He said the Georgian delegation had held meetings with the leadership of the ruling party in Hungary, with the officials discussing bilateral cooperation between the countries.

From tomorrow we will have meetings with representatives of the Hungarian Government at the highest level. Our goal is to further develop cooperation between the two countries. This visit to our partner has been important before the final decision to be taken on [granting Georgia] candidate status”, Kobakhidze stressed.

Answering the question of whether the fact that Hungary's ruling party submitted a resolution to the parliament, calling the Government not to support the launch of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU would pose a threat to Georgia “in this context”, Kobakhidze said "this is a matter of the EU and Hungary".

I think, in the end, an agreement will be reached regarding all this, and I do hope that Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova will receive support from all 27 countries”, he noted, adding this was what the three countries needed.

The ruling party head emphasised the domestic opposition was actually “annoyed” by the fact that Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian Government were “very strong supporters” of Georgia’s European integration.

You remember when the Hungarian European Commissioner [Olivér Várhelyi] came to Georgia [in 2022] and openly expressed his support for Georgia, what type of messages the opposition gave him. Actually, the opposition is irritated by everything related to the success of our country, including the European integration path”, Kobakgidze said.

The Georgian delegation on a visit to Hungary also includes Giorgi Volski, the Vice Parliament Speaker, Maka Botchorishvili, the Chair of the European Integration Committee in the Parliament, and Irakli Mezurnishvili, a GD MP.