Speaker Papuashvili: No single candidate state can withstand asymmetric leverage; We must help each other in overcoming undue obstacles

“The enlargement should be a merit-based process. The achievements and merits of each candidate country must be assessed fairly, predictably, and consistently,” 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, conditions must be clear, the progress must be duly recognized, and the goalposts must not be moved for political purposes.

“Unfortunately, every now and then, new and unpredictable preconditions are invented by individual EU member states, or more oddly, by Brussels. These unpredictable preconditions artificially delay the progress of the candidate states.

It is more than obvious that these preconditions often resemble political blackmail more than constructive conditionality. They stem from the EU’s election cycles, domestic political narratives, or historical and identity-related disputes.

No single candidate state can withstand the asymmetric leverage of an existing member state blocking progress on subjective grounds. Therefore, we must help each other in overcoming these undue obstacles,” he said.