“I’m also glad that the impeachment procedure [of Georgian President] was not successful because as HRVP [Josep Borrell] said here in Tbilisi, the impeachment process was unfortunately adding to polarization,” said Pawel Herczynski, EU ambassador to Georgia, on Wednesday.

Following today’s meeting with the President, Herczynski discussed the EU’s forthcoming enlargement report, saying the report will be merit-based describing Georgia’s progress.

“As ambassador of the European Union in Tbilisi, I have been meeting with all stakeholders, all political parties, civil society organizations, academia, scientists. No one I have met was arguing in favor of not granting Georgia candidate status. Everyone I have talked to, from the ruling party, from all opposition parties, everyone was very strongly advocating in favor of granting Georgia EU candidate status.

What I can say is that in recent weeks, especially after the visit of HRVP Joseph Borrell, clearly there is acceleration and a lot of positive developments, including the work on the broadcasting law, including a memorandum of understanding that was signed with some civil society organizations.

Look, a lot has been done. In my view, more could have been done. There are still two weeks. Even if you look at the priority number one, polarization, all of us have to admit, it’s still here. It still exists. When you look at de-oligarchisation, there is an action plan. But it’s an action plan describing different steps that will be taken in the future. So we don’t have meaningful implementation. We have steps to be taken in the future. It’s a lot. But probably in a year and a half, a bit more could have been done. So, the glass is half full, the glass is half empty, you know, we can discuss.

In my view, clearly, there is a very strong wish of the vast majority of the Georgian population to get closer to the European Union, to advance, to be granted a candidate status. All political parties are exactly on the same page. Both the ruling party and the opposition parties,” he stated.