“I’m also absolutely confident that we will soon be receiving the second questionnaire, which is good in keeping with the timelines that have been set,” said EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell.

“I was very honored to receive the first answers to the first questionnaire from the hands of the prime minister yesterday. I’m also absolutely confident that we will soon be receiving the second questionnaire, which is good at keeping with the set timelines. I would like to underline the obvious, which is that this process is not a 100 meters sprint, so it’s not about the speed but about the quality of these answers and the objective assessment that the European Commission will be doing about the situation on the ground, as measured around Georgia’s adherence to fundamental EU values, and key economic and other criteria,” he said.

According to the EU Ambassador, they expect the European Commission to prepare its opinion for the EU candidate status of Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova sometime next month.

“I expect the European Commission to come out with their opinion on Georgia, although by in Ukraine sometime next month, hopefully. So that’s what we are looking at in terms of the process,” Hartzell said.

Ambassador Hartzell emphasized it is up to the Georgian government to decide whether to make the EU Accession Questionnaire public, but praised it for doing so.

“The rule of the game is that the European Union leaves it up to the government to decide whether to publish both the questionnaire and the answers. I very much welcome the decision taken by the government to publish the questionnaires. Now it’s up to them to decide on the answers, as from the EU side, our opinion or the opinion of the European Commission will become public when issued,” he said.

Georgia submitted the first opinion part of the filled-in EU Accession Questionnaire required by the European Commission for granting the EU candidate status to the country through the EU Ambassador to Georgia, Carl Hartzell, on May 2.