Parliament Speaker: Anyone claiming EU accession is an objective, merit-based process is lying; it is inherently political

“In reality, everyone knows, and anyone who claims otherwise is lying, that EU accession is an objective, merit-based process; in truth, it is a political process,” Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili told Georgian journalists in Italy.

Papuashvili was asked to comment on a statement by Hungarian politician Péter Magyar suggesting that Ukraine’s accession to the EU could take up to 20 years.

Responding to the question, Papuashvili noted that everyone is aware that a single member state can block the progress of any deserving candidate during the integration process.

“Georgia is the prime example. When we were denied candidate status in June 2022, despite leading across all performance indicators ahead of all potential candidates, what was to blame? It was a political decision, driven in part by the Baltic states. Georgia was not imposing sanctions, and they took that decision. They cannot even explain in a normal manner why we were denied candidate status. Therefore, our position remains clear: this is a process designed entirely for Brussels to hold total leverage over a candidate state and dictate its every move. To borrow the words of a well-known Georgian NGO figure, they can make any country hop on one leg hoping for a positive nod, only to slam the door on its integration at the final hurdle.

Unfortunately, it is clear that certain EU countries are pushing a distinctly anti-Georgian agenda. We harbour no hope that they will do anything other than veto decisions when it comes to us. That is why we say we will not tie our country’s future to the whims of Brussels. Georgia’s development operates on its own logic, rooted in our national interest, not in trying to curry favour with Brussels or any individual member state. If we had bent to their demands, we would never have achieved the impressive economic growth we are enjoying today.

We remind everyone that we are outperforming every single EU candidate country. Those behind us are growing at half our rate, while others are stagnant near zero. Our results prove the correctness of our policies, and our policy today is simple: we will not heed harmful advice from Brussels until Brussels returns to a democratic, constructive framework. Until then, it will naturally be difficult to reset these relations. As it stands, the ball is firmly in Brussels’ court. Georgia is sitting at the negotiating table; they need to pull up a chair, behave like adults, and bring an end to this immature policy of ignoring Georgia, turning a blind eye to us, and wishing us harm,” Papuashvili stated.