Speaker Shalva Papuashvili: EU cannot afford seeing itself as exclusive club that dispenses or withholds grace of accession to candidate countries

“It is very important that the coordination of integration efforts of the EU candidate states extends to national parliaments. While governments negotiate, it is the parliaments that give democratic legitimacy to European integration. On behalf of the Parliament of Georgia, I have several messages to share with my colleagues,” 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 new political and economic reality in the world, global competition, and the evolving distribution of power all require EU’s changed attitude towards enlargement.

“First, the enlargement of the European Union is the main vehicle for Europe’s future strategic viability. The new political and economic reality in the world, global competition, and the evolving distribution of power all require the EU’s changed attitude towards enlargement. Maintaining a Fortress Europe for decades, without enlargement, is no longer a viable option. The title of our gathering, ‘Shaping Europe’s Future Together’, captures this momentum well: The candidate countries must be seen as participants in the enlargement process, not its objects. The EU cannot afford any more to see itself as an exclusive club that dispenses or withholds the grace of accession to the candidate countries. To the contrary, now EU must get serious about its own overused metaphor: ‘It takes two to tango,'” he said.