Speaker says visa-free travel with EU to be Georgia’s reforms merit

“A visa-free travel regime with the EU opened in 2017 is the merit of Georgia’s being a leader in reforms implementation,” said Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili.

According to the Speaker, visa liberalisation is the achievement of the “Georgian Dream” and they are wary of this accomplishment.

The Speaker remarked on the sixth report of the European Commission on the Visa Liberalisation fulfilment criteria, describing it as “positive,” adding Georgia was open to working with the EU institutions and considering the EU’s recommendations.

Speaking about migration, Shalva Papuashvili said that the process was not only linked to economic conditions, referring to the two-digit economic growth observed in recent years in Georgia.

“This is due to the fact that we are becoming part of a global world, with the possibility of free movement in other countries, job opportunities in different countries, what our government achieves sometimes with learning abilities, it is a concomitant process of all this.

The key thing is that we have an economic growth that makes us a leader country not only in the region but worldwide, and it is because our state has a safe environment for economic growth,” he said.

On October 18, the European Commission published the sixth report on the Visa Liberalisation fulfilment criteria. According to the report, “Overall, Georgia continues to fulfil the visa liberalisation benchmarks and has taken action to address the Commission’s previous recommendations.”