Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili who is participating in the 3rd Summit of the European Political Community (EPC) in Spain’s city of Granada, said: “The European countries, people I met and spoke with, including on the panel, clearly support us and acknowledge that they should not make the same mistake they made last year.”

The PM believes Georgia is ahead of the countries that have been granted the EU candidate status.

“We share the view that this may be a merit-based decision, but we also know it is political. Having Moldavia, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and not Georgia as EU candidates say everything,” he went on.

Garibashvili noted that the round table discussion covered geostrategic issues, including security challenges.

As for bilateral meetings with European leaders, the PM said he informed them of the nation’s accomplished progress and obtained assurance from all European leaders that they would back Georgia’s application for EU candidate status.

“Furthermore, I explained that if the country does not receive the status, it will be totally unfathomable. This will be an insult to the Georgian people, yet another unjustified attempt to oppress and mistreat the country. This will be utterly unacceptable. Most importantly, my final message to them was that it would be a direct message to Russia and other countries, the region as a whole, and countries attempting to move closer to the European Union.”

Georgian PM attended the opening event of the Plenary Session of the EPC.

The 3rd Summit of the EPC is attended by 47 leaders of European countries and executives of various EU institutions.