Ruling party head: Hungary “once again” affirms “solid support” for Georgia’s EU candidacy, European integration

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Friday said the Hungarian Government “once again” affirmed its “solid support” for granting Georgia the European Union membership candidate status and the country’s European integration path.

Kobakhidze told the media that the Georgian delegation had discussed bilateral cooperation, as well as Georgia’s EU integration, with Hungarian officials during their visit to Budapest from Tuesday to Friday at the invitation of Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén. 

He noted the delegation had held meetings with the Deputy PM and the Hungarian Parliament officials, as well as János Latorcai, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Judit Varga, the Chair of the Committee on European Affairs, and János Bóka, the Minister for EU Affairs.

• Hungary “firmly supports” Georgia’s EU candidacy as decision “with no alternatives” - ruling party head

Answering the question of whether Hungary’s position on Georgia’s candidacy was the same as last year when Hungarian officials slammed the decision of not granting Georgia the EU candidate status and claimed the country was “not treated fairly”, Kobakhidze said Hungary’s position on the issue “is very clear”.

He added the Hungarian authorities, including Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, were “surprised” when Georgia had not been granted the status last year.

Impartially, Georgia deserved the [EU] candidate status last year and deserves this year as well. [...] Accordingly, we hope that a positive decision will be made [by the European Council] in favour of Georgia next week”, the ruling party official stressed.

The Georgian delegation to Budapest, headed by Kobakhidze, also included Giorgi Volski, the Vice Parliament Speaker, Maka Botchorishvili, the Chair of the European Integration Committee in the Parliament, and Irakli Mezurnishvili, a GD MP.