FM highlights support for Georgia’s EU candidacy at EaP Ministerial

Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili on Monday said “no country” was against granting the European Union membership candidate status to Georgia, and further expressed his confidence the European Council would make the “important decision in the next few days”. 

In his remarks over the Eastern Partnership Foreign Affairs Ministerial meeting in Brussels, Darchiashvili noted the bloc’s member states at the roundtable were “united in their support” for Georgia.

It is important that in this very difficult geopolitical environment, the Eastern Partnership Summit was held, which is one of the main mechanisms, one of the main platforms where the European Union discusses how to bring the countries that are members of the Eastern Partnership closer together”, he said. 

“We know that it was through the Eastern Partnership mechanism that Georgia received very important and many tangible results in terms of European integration, which became the beginning of very interesting developments”, the official continued.  

The top Georgian diplomat stressed the “main message” from his Government was that Georgia was “ready to continue its contribution as a member of the Eastern Partnership”.

We can tell our citizens that there is no country that is against granting Georgia the [EU membership] candidate status. This creates very high expectations for us, and I am sure that the Council will make this important decision in the coming days - by the end of the week - which is of vital importance for us, for our country”, Darchiashvili said.

He added there were “messages from each country, from each minister”, on welcoming the European Commission's decision to recommend granting the candidate status to Georgia and open negotiations for Moldova and Ukraine.