“Together with the decision on the candidate status, European leaders provided a road map of what Georgia needs to do in order to move to the next stage to open negotiations about accessions to the European Union. This roadmap consists of nine steps. They are very clear,” said EU Ambassador to Georgia, Paweł Herczyński.

According to the Ambassador, there is active communication between the Government of Georgia and the European Union.

“As we all know, last year, in the middle of December, it was one of the happiest days of my professional career. I was on the stage together with the leadership of the country, and we were celebrating a historic moment for Georgia. Georgia becoming formally a candidate country for EU membership.

This is a huge achievement. And again, I can only congratulate all of you, all Georgians for getting to this historic stage. Together with the decision on the candidate status, European leaders provided a road map of what Georgia needs to do in order to move to the next stage to open negotiations about accessions to the European Union.

This roadmap consists of nine steps. They are very clear. If you look at those nine steps, it’s only one page. All of those steps are equally important. Yes, you are right, it has been already nearly five months ago. The work is in progress. We are in constant touch with Georgian authorities. There are visits, there are Georgian delegations going to Brussels. There are delegations from Brussels coming to Georgia. I’m very glad that yesterday and today we have a visit of 27 EU ambassadors, political and security committee, and work is in progress,” the Ambassador stated.

Paweł Herczyński emphasized that Georgia must complete nine steps to advance on the road to the European Union.

“The message coming from me and the message coming from the 27 EU Ambassadors is that time is running short. We should not waste any time. All the ingredients are there for Georgia to make progress and to move to the next stage and to open accession negotiations. But this needs to be done as soon as possible, all those nine steps should be implemented as quickly as possible because, in fact, we already have started drafting the next enlargement report. We are going through the same process as last year.

We will consult everyone. We are consulting the government, of course, but we are also talking to the opposition. We are talking to the civil society. We are getting input. The European Commission will publish its enlargement report with recommendations in October. And this recommendation will be positive or negative. And this only depends on how quickly, and how decisively the nine steps will be implemented in Georgia.

So we sincerely hope that there will be an acceleration, and a lot of progress will be made on all nine steps. So that the European Commission can give positive recommendations and member states in December this year. Can agree to open accession negotiations with Georgia and we can all celebrate in December this year. Like we have celebrated December last year. But this is entirely in the hands of the Georgian political elite,” he stated.

Additionally, the EU ambassador addressed the draft law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, stating that it is incompatible with EU norms and values.

“You ask me what steps have been implemented, and what steps have not been implemented. Unfortunately, I’m not in a position to tell you exactly. There will be an assessment by the European Commission. The assessment is ongoing and the results of this assessment will be made public in October this year. What I can tell you is that the time is running out, and we need to accelerate. We need to make progress. We need to make sure that there is enough progress on all nine steps so that the European Commission will be in a position to give positive recommendations. At the same time, unfortunately, I have to admit that there are some open issues that require further discussion. Where there’s still a need for a better understanding between the European Commission and Georgian authorities. Unfortunately, also there is an issue of this latest initiative, of the draft law on foreign influence, that in our view is incompatible with EU norms and EU values as very clearly stated by the spokesperson of the high representative/ vice-president,” Paweł Herczyński declared.