The Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia, Pawel Herczynski, emphasized that granting candidate status is just the beginning of the process toward Georgia’s EU membership.

He expressed hope that the work related to the nine steps identified by the European Commission will accelerate and be inclusive.

“The nine steps have been identified by the European Commission and agreed by 27 member states only in December. Historic European Council granted Georgia candidate status. Now we need to move forward. Actually granting the candidate status is not the end. It’s only the beginning of the hard work towards Georgia becoming a member of the European Union. We hope that the work will accelerate, that the work will be inclusive and that the work will be constructive. And, of course, Georgia will be assessed.

I sincerely hope that we will move to the next stage, namely to the opening of accession negotiations as quickly as possible. But again, this will be based on the progress made on the nine steps.

I think that we are only a couple of weeks after the nine steps have been agreed. It’s too early to say about the progress. I can hope and I sincerely hope that the progress will be made and the progress will be made very quickly so that we move to the next stage, to the opening of accession negotiations between Georgia and the European Union,” the Ambassador stated.