Parliament’s EU Integration Committee discusses fulfilment of transportation-related obligations under Association Agreement with EU

The Georgian Parliament's European Union Integration Committee on Friday said it had discussed results achieved between 2014 and 2024 in fulfilling the country’s transportation-related obligations under the Association Agreement with the European Union and plans for the fulfilment of the remaining tasks.

Maka Botchorishvili, the Chair of the Committee, said the country was “step by step getting closer” to the EU standards, and noted the Agreement had “created a very important and solid foundation for our country's integration” into the bloc.

It is very important to summarise the 10-year period - what Georgia has done in order to fulfil the Association Agreement, what has been done in different directions to bring Georgia closer to the EU than it was 10 years ago”, she added.

In his report, Guram Guramishvili, the country’s Deputy Economy Minister, reviewed the implemented and remaining transport reforms since the signing of the Agreement, and noted a “number of progressive steps” had been taken between 2014 and 2024 to fulfil the obligations.

Guramishvili said the ongoing reform in land transport involved improving the field of passenger transportation and creating a competitive environment in the road transport market, as well as increasing the safety of the road transport process, improving ecological indicators and the quality of customer service and more.

He also said a “complete restructuring” of the Georgian railway transport would gradually begin as a part of the ongoing reform and aim to “liberalise the sector, establish high safety standards and increase the industry's overall efficiency in accordance with the best European experience”.

The official noted a ”large part of the obligations” provided by the Agreement had been fulfilled, and added “active work” was ongoing to approximate domestic standards to the remaining directives and regulations.