“The EU doors for Georgia are open. Poland is very friendly and strongly supportive of the enlargement process. However, the most important steps must come from Georgia and its authorities, who must engage and fulfil all necessary conditions,” said Artur Gębal, Head of Mission at the Embassy of Poland to Georgia.

According to Artur Gębal, the Polish presidency is very friendly to the enlargement policy of the European Union.

“Poland commenced its presidency of the European Union on January 1st. We are proud to be a member of the European Union and proud to hold the presidency for these six months. Today’s event, the conference, is related to our presidency, our ambitions, our priorities, and how significantly this relates to Georgia. We would like to emphasize that the Polish presidency is very friendly not only to Georgia but also to the enlargement policy of the European Union. We would like to underscore that this six-month Polish presidency, as well as the upcoming months and years, represent an excellent opportunity for enlargement and for successfully moving towards EU membership, similar to what we accomplished 20 years ago,” he said.

Artur Gębal remarked that the Polish presidency of the EU is an “excellent opportunity” for Georgia.

“This is the main point I wanted to convey; it is the central aim of this conference, which will also be debated among my distinguished colleagues, ambassadors, and, of course, our Georgian friends. As I mentioned at the beginning, one of the aims of this conference is to highlight that Georgia and its authorities now have an excellent opportunity to re-engage and fully engage with the European Union during the Polish presidency. Our presidency has certain instruments in the enlargement policy. We are presiding over, for instance, the main working group on enlargement, and we have high ambitions for the next six months in terms of enlargement. We believe that these upcoming six months could be record-setting in terms of enlargement compared to previous years.

The EU doors for Georgia are open. As you know, this was a geopolitical decision made some time ago; an illustration of this is the candidate status granted to countries like Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. The path is clear, the doors are open, and the Polish presidency is very friendly and strongly supportive of the enlargement process. We ourselves have a fresh memory of enlargement; we joined the European Union not too long ago—20 years ago. We are highly ambitious and supportive of this process, including Georgia’s EU membership.

However, the most important steps must come from Georgia and its authorities, who must engage and fulfil all necessary conditions. By the way, my country’s path also did not involve any shortcuts. It was a laborious and challenging process of negotiations and approximation to the EU. Our negotiations lasted almost 14 years, during which we fulfilled all conditions and expectations, aligning our legislation with the acquis communautaire, and we successfully joined the EU.

Moreover, we have effectively leveraged our 20 years of presence in the EU. Poland has developed enormously, and I can attest to this from personal experience. I will provide examples during the conference to illustrate how much Poland has developed in the last 20 to 30 years. This is a historic and unprecedented moment for Georgia to pursue EU membership, and it’s hard to imagine better conditions for starting this journey than under the current Polish presidency,” he said.