“We do our best to be the leader of the Associated Trio, and if the European Union valued that leadership, that’s great; if not, our key responsibility is to be upfront with the Georgian people and the European Union,” stated Shalva Papuashvili, the Georgian Parliament Speaker.

According to Shalva Papuashvili, the first report of the European Commission stated that Georgia has implemented three recommendations at this point, with just a few remaining.

According to him, there is a judicial reform issue in which the most recent developments were not accounted for in the interim report.

The Speaker also stated that the most recent amendments had been sent to the Venice Commission, that the de-oligarchization bill had been halted, and that consultation with Brussels on a systematic approach was ongoing.

According to Shalva Papuashvili, the meeting with non-governmental organizations on Tuesday was crucial, but the ultimate assessment of whether or not the recommendations were followed was up to the European Commission and European Council.

“All of these concerns have been discussed, and the assumption is that the opposition will agree with the Georgian people on one point: Georgia was handled unfairly last June since it was and is the leader of the Associated Trio countries, and the leader was not given candidate status. Georgians were mistreated, and this was an unjust decision,” he stated.

Predicting, according to Shalva Papuashvili, is challenging. “But we anticipate the EU will be forthright with the Georgian people this time,” he added.