PM: If EU is ready to open accession talks before 2028, we will sign immediately

“We were told every three months that opening accession negotiations was not something we deserved. Repeating this every three months meant keeping society in a constant state of anxiety and creating a constant lever to encourage revolutionary processes,” Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said on the “Open Air” program.

According to Kobakhidze, in order to prevent the country from being subjected to constant pressure, the government announced that it would not put the opening of EU accession negotiations on the agenda until 2028.

“There were no congratulations regarding the elections, which directly meant encouraging these processes. This was followed by another decision, which was to be announced in September, on not opening negotiations. The same thing would happen here: negotiations would be opened with Ukraine and Moldova, but not with Georgia, and this was supposed to cause unrest in Georgia,” Kobakhidze said.

He said this could naturally cause public concern given the support for Georgia’s integration into the European Union.

“Formally, this is the European Union in the eyes of the public. The public sees that the European Union is not granting you status and is not opening negotiations,” Kobakhidze said.

According to him, the government’s decision not to raise the issue of opening negotiations until 2028 was intended to prevent Georgia from being subjected to what he described as “three-month blackmail.”

“We did not want them to tell us every three months that we did not deserve it, that we were not entitled to it, and then try every three months to trigger revolutionary processes on that basis. We made this announcement. It was the position of the team, which I personally announced. We said, word for word, that from our side we would not put the issue of opening negotiations on the agenda until 2028,” Kobakhidze said.

He stressed that the government had also made clear that it would immediately agree to opening negotiations if the EU itself expressed readiness to do so.

“After this statement, the EU ambassador came out and, unfortunately, directly said that we had supposedly suspended the European integration process, whereas the EU had previously suspended political dialogue with Georgia in June 2024 in writing. In reality, they attributed to us what they themselves had done in June 2024, for which there is a document,” Kobakhidze said.

“We said only one thing: from our side, we would no longer actively pursue this issue or put it on the agenda so that every three months we would not be told that we did not deserve it. We did not want the public to be agitated every three months. At the same time, we confirmed that if the EU itself expressed readiness to open negotiations, we would sign immediately,” he said.

According to Kobakhidze, this demonstrated what he described as the government’s “unwavering position” on continuing Georgia’s European integration.

“Even today, the European bureaucracy claims that we do not want the European Union, and we are saying one simple thing: bring us the document and we will sign it. It is clear who actually does not want Georgia’s European integration. We are ready for everything. We asked for candidate status, we asked for the opening of negotiations. Why were they not granted? There is no answer,” Kobakhidze said.

He added that at the time, there were not even specific conditions that Georgia could have failed to meet.

“There were not even benchmarks then that could have been cited as something we failed to fulfill,” he said.

Kobakhidze said the Georgian government had repeatedly expressed a clear desire to take every subsequent step on the path toward European integration.

“There was the refusal to grant candidate status, then the refusal to open negotiations, followed by the suspension of political dialogue. We are telling our colleagues today: let us leave the past behind. We are not interested in what happened in the past, whether it was good or bad. Let us start counting from today. Let us sign a document and open negotiations. It is clear who does not want this. We call on them, and they say no. That is our position,” Kobakhidze said.

He said the issue was also linked to sovereignty.

“Everything here comes down to the issue of sovereignty. We believe sovereignty is not a subject for discussion,” he said.

Kobakhidze also referred to the controversy surrounding Georgia’s Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence and the Law on Family Values and Protection of Minors.

“You remember the uproar over the laws. One was the Transparency Law, for which there was no explanation as to why the law was bad. The other was the Law on Family Values and Protection of Minors. We did not hear any justification on that either, but here too there is harsh pressure and harsh demands,” he said.

According to the prime minister, the government is also ready to restore the strategic partnership with the United States.

“The same applies to the US. We did not suspend the strategic partnership. It was suspended from their side. As soon as we see readiness from the other side to restore the strategic partnership, we are ready immediately,” Kobakhidze said.

“This shows that from our side there is a desire, an interest and commitment to this path, while from the other side there are artificially created problems,” he added.

Kobakhidze also said Georgia had proposed entering into a public and transparent dialogue with the European Union.

“We also propose to the European Union that we enter into a public and transparent dialogue. There have been attempts from various sides to enter into non-transparent dialogue, which is fundamentally unacceptable to us,” he said.

“Whatever dialogue takes place, everything must take place before the public, in appropriate formats, including political and non-political technical formats. We are ready for dialogue,” Kobakhidze said.

He added that Georgia understood that agreements could not necessarily be reached immediately.

“We understand that perhaps they cannot offer us something in one day or sign something immediately. That is why dialogue must begin. We are saying: let us start a political dialogue openly and transparently and discuss all issues together. We are also receiving a negative response to this from that side,” Kobakhidze said.