Parliament EU Committee Chair highlights importance of “close cooperation” with bloc’s institutions
She emphasised that attaining the status was “just the beginning” of the “ongoing battle” on the path of Georgia’s accession to the EU, expressing hope the country’s efforts would shape the forthcoming decisions by the bloc and its institutions. Photo via Parliament of Georgia
Tweet 
Share
Maka Botchorishvili, the Chair of the European Integration Committee of the Georgian Parliament, on Thursday highlighted the importance of “close cooperation” with EU institutions and political dialogue to deepen relations with the bloc and “bring objective information and reality to Brussels and EU member state capitals”.
In an interview with the Imedi TV channel, Botchorishvili pointed out the ruling team’s “struggle” to obtain the EU candidate status, adding “we won this battle and the country got the candidate status”.
She emphasised that attaining the status was “just the beginning” of the “ongoing battle” on the path of Georgia’s accession to the EU, expressing hope the country’s efforts would shape the forthcoming decisions by the bloc and its institutions.
We have seen that Ukraine and Moldova were granted [EU] candidate status a year earlier [than Georgia] and we needed more time to work and prove [some] things, but we managed to do it”, Botchorishvili said.
The European Council granted Georgia the EU membership candidate status on December 14, 2023, after the country officially applied for the membership on March 3, 2022.