EU Ambassador to Georgia Paweł Herczyński on Friday said the first announcements of the newly nominated prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze “are very encouraging.”

“That the new government that we will have starting at the end of next week, is ready to sit down and work very hard with our assistance to move Georgia forward on the implementation of nine steps,” Herczyński went on.

The Ambassador pledged the EU to be ready to move forward “as quickly as possible, so that Georgia moves to the next step already this year.”

“We have all been celebrating Georgia becoming formally an EU candidate country. Decision has been taken on the 14th of December at the level of EU heads of state. Together with that very positive decision, heads of state and government of 27 EU member states have endorsed nine steps that Georgia needs to implement in order to move forward on its a path towards EU membership. It is for Georgian political elites to decide how quickly they want to implement those nine steps.

On our side, we are ready to move forward as quickly as possible, so that Georgia moves to the next step already this year. The next step is opening of the accession negotiations. But it is not in our hands. It’s not in the hands of the European Union and not in the hands of Brussels. It’s in the hands of Georgian political elites. I can repeat that we sincerely hope that this will be a very inclusive work involving all political forces. That at the same time, the opposition will be constructive, also civil society will be fully involved, and in spite of the elections and it’s quite natural that a lot of attention will be devoted to the elections, in parallel the work will continue on the implementation of the nine steps,” EU Ambassador asserted.