“It is a fact that discussions on EU enlargement policy regarding Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia only intensified following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, a point which Ms Rasa confirms,” stated the Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maka Botchorishvili.

According to the Minister, the enlargement process had been stagnant before the war in Ukraine.

“Until that point, this process had been very slow. As you know, the Western Balkan countries have been in this process for decades; the same is true about Turkey. Yet, the European Union has not seen real progress in its enlargement policy for over a decade. Consequently, it can be said that the shifting geopolitical reality served as a fresh catalyst for initiating talks on this matter.

However, what results we will ultimately see, whether EU enlargement will become a reality, and in what form, remains a separate matter for debate. You know that there has been a lot of discussion recently regarding what the EU’s enlargement policy should look like and how the rules of enlargement should be structured, which in itself raises many questions,” Botchorishvili stated.

For context, MEP Rasa Juknevičienė had stated: “Georgia is failing to capitalise on the momentum created when a window of opportunity opened because of the Ukrainians; before the 2022 war, nobody was talking about enlargement.”