Ambassador Herczyński: Instead of demonising EU, authorities must revert to EU integration track

“We have not seen any serious attempt to reverse the course. On the contrary, and the enlargement report is very clear about it, we have witnessed very serious backsliding on fundamentals, on democracy, on human rights, on the rule of law, and this is something that is completely incompatible with a country that wants to join the European Union,” EU Ambassador to Georgia Paweł Herczyński told Georgian journalists at a press conference in Tbilisi.

According to Ambassador Herczyński, Georgian authorities know perfectly well what they need to do in order for Georgia to be a frontrunner again.

The EU Ambassador explained that the government of Georgia simply needs to reverse the course and go back to the integration track.

“Since June last year, European institutions have decided to downgrade the level of contact with Georgian authorities in reaction, and as a consequence of undemocratic legislation that has been introduced in Georgia. We are sending message after message, please return to the path of EU integration. Please, comply with the commitments that you, the authorities of Georgia, have made by applying to become a member of the European Union.

However, for the last year, we have not seen any serious attempt to reverse the course. On the contrary, and the enlargement report is very clear about it, we have witnessed very serious backsliding on fundamentals, on democracy, on human rights, on the rule of law, and this is something that is completely incompatible with a country that wants to join the European Union.

Georgian authorities know perfectly well what they need to do in order for Georgia to be a frontrunner again. I sincerely hope that instead of demonising the European Union, instead of accusing the European Union, instead of spreading conspiracy theories against the European Union, they will simply reverse the course and go back to the integration track.

On our side, we are ready, but we need to see a serious commitment. Unfortunately, in the last months, it was not the case,” Paweł Herczyński has said.

Additionally, Paweł Herczyński responded to a question, stating: “The European Commission’s report claims there has been no progress in Georgia, yet at the same time, we have various studies and data published by the European Commission indicating that Georgia is in a leading position. If the European Commission does not consider these data and studies in its own report, then what does it base its conclusions on? Doesn’t this give the impression that the report is driven by political motives?”

According to the EU Ambassador, the enlargement report published in Brussels is the only one that encompasses all relevant parameters.

“ I know that Georgian authorities are very skillfully using different statistics given by different international institutes, comparing different countries and different periods. For us, what is in place in order to assess Georgia’s progress is the enlargement report. Unfortunately, as you have rightfully pointed out, the report is devastating for Georgia.

The report was based on many different sources. First and foremost, we have received input from Georgian authorities. We have widely consulted different international organisations. We have consulted civil society organisations. We have also taken into account different valuable international statistics, surveys, and reports, and the outcome in front of you is 86 pages over 35 chapters with a clear assessment of the European Commission.

We had 33 European institutions involved in the drafting of this report and nine EU agencies. There were hundreds of people who did a very thorough analysis, and this is the outcome. For the European Commission, the Enlargement Report is the only report assessing progress made by each candidate country,” Paweł Herczyński concluded.