Speaker Papuashvili: EU should see enlargement as historic opportunity to revitalize itself and regain global leadership, and not as burden or charity, as often presented by some

“We must avoid the impression that candidate countries are competitors rather than partners. Such fragmentation weakens us,” said Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, addressing the first (founding) conference of Parliament Chairs from EU candidate countries organized at the initiative of Parliament Speakers of Serbia and Ukraine.

According to Shalva Papuashvili, the parliamentary format of the candidate countries should be a forum for practical cooperation and joint initiatives.

“When we face problems one-by-one, our voice is weaker, our leverage is reduced, and the enlargement becomes easier to delay, politicize, or treat it as an indefinite process. We should avoid the parliamentary format of the candidate countries becoming a forum for ranking, lecturing or importing bilateral disputes. It should be a forum for practical cooperation and joint initiatives. The joint declaration, which we are to adopt, clearly stipulates that we have gathered for unity, not division, and the Georgian parliament fully endorses this message.

And, finally, the best way to address the European Union’s currently weakened geopolitical and economic positions is to step up the game and enlarge to strategically critical geopolitical areas – the Balkans and the Black Sea. This is why the EU should see enlargement as an historic opportunity to revitalize itself and regain global leadership, and not as a burden or charity, as often presented by some.

As Georgia’s national motto puts it, strength is in unity. Let us, therefore, use this gathering for the purpose of shaping our European future together,” he said.