“They claim that the primary window for EU integration opens during a state of war. In other words, we are expected to pray for hostilities; if they don’t happen naturally, initiate them by force, to keep this window permanently open. Can you imagine the sort of logic they have arrived at?” declared MP Tengiz Sharmanashvili, a member of the parliamentary majority.

Sharmanashvili commented on a statement made by MEP Rasa Juknevičienė, who remarked: “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.”

According to Tengiz Sharmanashvili, this statement was a slip of the tongue on Juknevičienė’s part.

“Of course, they didn’t want to say this out loud, but let’s not pretend Juknevičienė is some great genius; she is simply speaking aloud about things that should be kept quiet. Her masters will probably wag a finger at her for this, but the fact remains that it slipped out, and it happens to be the truth.

It’s just like the situation with NATO. For how many years now have they been saying we are ready, that we meet their standards? We have spilt more blood in their operations than some actual NATO member states; we receive stellar assessments, yet they wouldn’t even grant us a MAP [Membership Action Plan]. The European Union is repeating this behaviour; even though we top the rankings, our accession negotiations have not been initiated. Why? Because we didn’t help them whip up a state of war, which apparently is what opens windows and doors. If war is what opens windows, that union is in a sorry state,” Sharmanashvili stated.