The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Davit Zalkaliani, stated they have received another very strong message from the leaders of the European Union on granting candidate status to Georgia together with Ukraine and Moldova.
Zalkaniani noted that an informal summit of EU leaders was held in Marseille on 10 March. The statement related to the ongoing war in Ukraine was comprehensive in relation to Ukraine, one of the issues of this statement was also the initiation of procedures for the nomination of a candidate for Georgia and Moldova.
“I think this is already a kind of final seal from the EU that this process has started formally and it will be irreversible. Now what do we expect – the next step is that the European Commission will send a questionnaire to the candidate members and it will be very comprehensive, covering all major areas, which is necessary to meet the criteria for candidate status. For this, we must carry out serious work with all agencies, both the executive and the legislature,” said Zalkaliani.
He added that civil society should also be involved and that everything should be done to ensure that the questionnaire is properly completed.
“Then, when we are ready, the completed form should be returned to the European Commission, which will finally decide on the issue of granting candidate status to all three countries,” Zalkaliani said.
