Georgian PM says “no alternative” to opening EU accession talks with country this year

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Monday said there was no alternative to opening the European Union accession talks with the country at the end of the year.

In his interview with Imedi TV, Kobakhidze expressed his hope that the European Union would make a decision, which would be “equally in the interests” of Georgia and the bloc.

Kobakhidze claimed there was “quite serious pressure” on the European Union in 2022, when the European Council had not granted the membership candidate status to Georgia.

The European Union itself is not fully sovereign when making decisions. Otherwise, not granting the candidate status to Georgia in June 2022 was not giving anything to the European Union. Then there was a difficult context, the European Union was under particular pressure, and in the end, this led to the development when the institutions of the European Union were actually used to try to disrupt the situation in Georgia, and this was done by what we call the Global War Party” he said in reference to the opposition United National Movement party and its supporters.

The PM further noted that the bloc was completely interested in having relations with Georgia based on fairness with the decisions being made in accordance with this principle.

Kobakhidze stressed there was no talk of any fairness, when the bloc had opened the accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova, but not with Georgia, and further added that these two countries were “formally ahead of Georgia by a small step” despite having the worst problems of corruption, weakness of institutions, setbacks in democracy and human rights.

I hope, this year, unlike in 2022, the European Union will manage to make a decision that is equally in the interests of Georgia and the EU, and I hope accession talks will be opened this year”, he said.

The PM also noted that the bloc must “uphold fairness” towards both the Georgian public and the state, especially its Government that “is doing its best” to develop the country’s democracy, human rights and economy.

[M]any lies were spread, as if receiving the [EU membership candidate] status would open up a lot of help, funding, etc. [And] everyone has seen it to be an absolute lie. They easily deceived the public in order to create excessive emotions, which turned out to be a lie. Everyone saw that today everything is the same as it was before [receiving] the candidate status, we just received a serious political guarantee from the point of view that Georgia is now officially a candidate country for the EU [membership]”, he noted.

The Government head stressed that Georgia was the “fastest” developing country in terms of economy, democracy and human rights, not only compared to Ukraine and Moldova, but also to any EU membership candidate country, and further expressed his hope that a “fair decision” would be made by the bloc.