Parliament Speaker sums up Georgia’s Road to European Union Conference

“It was a successful conference and I would like to extend my gratitude to the civil platform. All the issues concerning the judicial reform, electoral issues and deoligarchization were put to thorough consideration and discussion,” said Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili summarizing Georgia’s Road to the European Union Conference.

According to the Speaker, the participants held a professional discussion on all issues, though the opposition was not active.

“As for the opposition, unfortunately, they left the Conference in the very middle of it, which reveals their true interest in the issues put on the agenda. We eventually observe that unfortunately, the EU candidate status is used by the part of the opposition as an instrument for the pressure on the authorities, blackmail and disorder. When they realize that the discussions are professional and peaceful, they refuse to participate, which we witnessed today. At the beginning, they appeared to be eager to engage in the considerations and I thanked all the opposition members, though unfortunately, most of them left the meeting,” he said.

Shalva Papuashvili touched upon the cooperation with the civil platform and thanked them.

“I would like to thank the civil platform for ensuring the representation of diverse civil society, allowing every member of them to express their positions. I believe it was the first successful conference and it will serve as a successful and experienced pillar to further organize meetings of the hereof format. We still have some issues deriving from the Association Agreement to be considered, concerning environmental protection, economics etc. which overall constitutes a very spirit of the EU and shall be discussed. It affects the lives of our citizens and it is a real EU in Georgia,” he concluded.

The Conference was organized by the Georgian Parliament and the EaP Civil Society Forum Georgian National Platform.