MP Makhashvili: Marta Kos should arrive in Georgia, visit occupation line and see what risks country faces

“It seems to me that Georgia does not exist for Marta Kos at all. She flies to Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan so often that perhaps she does not even realize she has to fly over Georgia. Nothing about her surprises me,” Levan Makhashvili, Chair of the Georgian Parliament’s European Integration Committee, said.

According to Makhashvili, the EU’s latest enlargement document contains nothing new.

“They themselves say that these changes should be made without changes to the so-called treaties, which is unimaginable. We have seen many dates — at one point 2022 was supposed to be decisive, then it was 2026. Apparently, this will continue until we reach 2045.

We will see what steps the EU takes instead of words. We welcome the possibility of the EU’s enlargement policy being freed, as much as possible, from political or retaliatory approaches and being focused primarily on concrete steps taken by individual countries,” Makhashvili said.

He also said that the EU’s enlargement policy depends on geopolitical factors.

“Georgia’s ‘fault’ in this process is that it did not decide to join the war effort. Today, Georgia is paying the price for peace while facing slander and attacks against the country.

If Georgia were a neighbor of Montenegro, we might make different decisions. But, unfortunately or fortunately, we are not and cannot be Montenegro’s neighbor. We are in the region where we are and make decisions based on regional factors — including on the issue of joining sanctions and taking tougher positions regarding the war in Ukraine, as well as toward Iran, China and Russia.

It is wrong to compare Georgia with Montenegro, Moldova or others because we are in a different region. Unfortunately, we have the neighbor to the north that we have. Tomorrow, that northern neighbor will not turn into an ocean; unfortunately, it will remain the same. Georgia makes decisions based on where we are, what kind of neighbor we have, and so on.

Instead of Marta Kos looking out of a Brussels window and seeing only Montenegro while failing to see Georgia on the other side of the Black Sea, she should come to Georgia and, with a warm and delicious cup of espresso, perhaps see the region more clearly.

She should come to Georgia, visit the occupation line and see what is happening and what risks the country faces. This person has never even been to Georgia,” Makhashvili said.