“I wish to make this clear to everyone in the European Union, and to their satellites here in Georgia: the Ukrainian and Moldovan path to European integration is not Georgia’s path. Georgia will never walk the path of Ukraine and Moldova that demands surrendering territories and the dissolution of statehood as the price of EU membership,” declared Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili.

He further stated that recent remarks by the German Chancellor and the Moldovan President both point to the effective abandonment or near-total surrender of sovereignty as a prerequisite for EU accession.

“Yesterday, we witnessed a statement by the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, in which he suggested that Ukraine will likely need to cede territories to advance towards EU membership. We also heard from the President of Moldova, who once again reiterated that the abolition of the Moldovan state and its absorption into Romania represents the most optimal path for Moldova’s accession to the European Union. Both statements, taken together, amount to the same thing: the surrender of sovereignty, the annulment or near-complete relinquishment of sovereignty as the condition of EU membership.

In Merz’s case, the implication is plain: if Ukraine wishes to join, it must surrender its jurisdiction and sovereignty over its own territories. The Moldovan President goes even further, suggesting that Moldova must not merely compromise its sovereignty, but dissolve its statehood entirely. When Ukraine and Moldova are held up to us as examples to follow, I wish to say plainly to everyone in the EU, in Brussels, and to their proxies within Georgia that the Ukrainian and Moldovan model of European integration is not Georgia’s model. Georgia will never set foot on that road: a road that leads to EU membership through the surrender of territory and the annulment of statehood.

It is exactly what was implied when we were told that EU membership should be pursued as an end in itself. It is the direction that logic takes. If EU membership becomes an end in itself, it implies that one must be willing to sacrifice territorial and national sovereignty. It is for precisely this reason that EU membership, in this sense, is not our end in itself; not if it requires us to surrender our territories, our sovereignty, our right to determine our own policy, which is exactly what Brussels is imposing on Ukraine and Moldova as a condition, and which they themselves now openly acknowledge,” Papuashvili declared.