“The government bears full responsibility for securing Georgia’s candidacy status,” said non-governmental organizations in their statement. In an address to the government, the NGOs said that they would make every effort that the country received the candidate status at the end of 2023.

“Last month, we, the citizens of Georgia, once again reaffirmed our loyalty to European values and unwavering commitment to the path leading to EU membership. Through widespread public consolidation around EU membership as a national goal, we have shown that the people of Georgia deserve candidate status.

According to the sources, in October 2023, the European Commission may recommend granting Georgia the status of a candidate for EU membership if Georgia continues to pursue reforms and does not deteriorate the state of human rights and democracy in the upcoming period.

The government bears full responsibility for securing Georgia’s candidacy status. As such, it must review and bolster its efforts to seize this historic opportunity to ensure a prosperous and secure European future for the people of Georgia. Any legislative initiatives or actions that contradict core European values will be seen as sabotaging the candidacy status and running counter to Article 78 of the Georgian Constitution.

As civil society organizations, we declare that our primary goal is to make every effort to secure candidate status. We, as a united society, must proudly announce at the end of 2023 that Georgia is a candidate country for EU membership!,” reads the statement.