FM hopes Georgia officially gets EU candidate status on December 15

Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili deems the European Commission’s positive recommendation for Georgia’s candidate status as a significant step forward on the European integration path.

In the Tavisufali Khedva (Free Vision) Program of the GPB’s First Channel, Darchiashvili said the government works actively to secure votes of the partner states for the European Council to endorse the decision on December 15.

According to the FM, the EC’s decision makes the European integration process irreversible. “This is a significant event for our European future, and I want to congratulate each citizen on this historic decision,” he said.

Ilia Darchiashvili went on to say that the government keeps dynamic relations with partner states in a bilateral format and works in the capitals of partner states to “guarantee mobilization of partners’ votes.”

“We are sure that the European Council will take the only geopolitically justified and merit-based decision that will green-light our candidate status, thus moving us onwards to the last phase of European integration. This will be even more complex and difficult, although our daily declared goal is to make the country a full member of the European family. This is our goal, and we are working very actively in this direction,” he said.

Ilia Darchiashvili criticized the opponents for “devaluating” Georgia’s European Perspective, which allegedly put Georgia behind Ukraine and Moldova, which received candidate status last year.

“This is not so for us, who have worked for years in the direction of European integration. It was a very important decision since the European Perspective made our European integration irreversible. Therefore, we can freely say that last year’s decision was the component of the latest recommendation,” he said.