Parliament Speaker: every day without EU candidate status an “injustice towards Georgia”

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday said every day that went without Georgia having the European Union membership candidate status was an “injustice” towards the country, in his summary of the work of the legislative body throughout the past year.

In his remarks over the European integration process, Papuashvili noted Georgia’s state “system, structure, bureaucracy” meant the country deserved to be granted the status from EU authorities.

“I am absolutely convinced that Georgia deserved the candidate status [in the past year], and this was confirmed by the European Commission itself in the final assessment of the questionnaire [filled in by the Georgian authorities]”, he said.

The assessment has been completed, we just received the result, and we have seen that we are leading on fundamental issues including justice and others”, the head of the legislative body said in reference to the report that assessed the country’s progress on approximation with EU framework and was released on Thursday by the Commission.

Papuashvili also stressed it was “important” for the domestic opposition to “recognise that the country deserves the status”, and said “political unity” around the “fundamental issue” would result in an “appropriate response” from the European Union. 

Pawel Herczynski, the European Union Ambassador to Georgia, on Friday congratulated the country’s Government on the Commission’s “positive report”.

In his reaction, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili stressed the document had “once again demonstrated” his country deserved the membership candidate status as a “top reformer”.