The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) party adopted the 2024 manifesto at an extraordinary congress held in Brussels on March 20-21. According to the manifesto, ALDE has the ambition to ensure that the Western Balkan countries, Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine meet the criteria for EU membership by 2029.
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According to the leaders of the ALDE member Georgian opposition parties, Girchi - More Freedom and Strategy Aghmashenebeli, the supporting note for the candidate countries in the manifesto appeared at their initiative and at the initiative of Ukrainian politicians.
"We reaffirm our commitment to an open-door policy for European countries that meet the Copenhagen criteria and ensure that the EU sends strong signals that compliance with the criteria and the achievement of the indicators bring tangible results.
In this sense, our ambition is to ensure that the countries of the Western Balkans, Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine are ready to meet all the criteria by 2029. In addition to meeting the Copenhagen criteria, the candidate countries must be in line with the common foreign and security policy of the European Union," the manifesto states.
ALDE points out that EU enlargement is beneficial from political, economic, and security points of view. The manifesto states that "the EU, its values, and standards remain a great unifying factor for the nations of the Western Balkans, Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine."
ALDE unites more than 60 political parties across Europe and is represented in the European Parliament by 70 members. ALDE members include European Council President Charles Michel (Reformist Movement Party) and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Estonian Reform Party), as well as the Prime Ministers of Slovenia, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Bulgaria.
Georgia received the status of an EU candidate country in December 2023. The next stage is accession negotiations, for which the country needs to fulfill nine conditions defined by the European Commission. These conditions include reforming the judicial system, improving human rights protection standards, and ensuring a free, fair, and competitive electoral process. On February 20, 2024, after the meeting of the Georgia-EU Association Council, European Commissioner for Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said that if Georgia fulfills all conditions by 2030, the EU should be ready to accept it. In this regard, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that "in 2030, Georgia will be more ready for EU membership than any other candidate country."
