“I believe that our European friends, European countries will make the only right political decision and grant Georgia and Georgian people the candidate status, because our country, our people, our government deserve it,” stated the Prime Minister of Georgia in his speech during Europe Day.
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Irakli Garibashvili remarked that while symbolic, granting a candidate status is an important decision. He states that the Georgian Dream has done a lot to bring Georgia closer to Europe but that he understands that receiving the status requires more work and further reforms.
“We have a significant overlap with the European people in our culture, which is based on our Georgian Christian identity, the same values modern Europe is based upon. I thus believe that Georgia will become a fully-fledged member of the big European family and join Europe with its own traditions. I would like to reconfirm our readiness to continue the reforms which are necessary primarily for our people and secondly, for getting even closer with our European friends and communities” spoke the Prime Minister.
On June 23, 2022, on the decision of the 27 member states of the European Union, Ukraine and Moldova were given the status of a candidate country for EU membership, while Georgia was granted the European perspective. The European Commission defined 12 recommendations for Georgia to implement, among which are de-oligarchization, resolution of political polarization, judicial reform, strengthening of the anti-corruption service, and improvement of the media environment. The European Commission will prepare its own evaluation of Georgia's implementation of the criteria in the fall of this year and address its recommendation to the European Council, which is the body that makes the final decision on the status.
According to the latest assessment by the nongovernmental organizations, only one out of 12 recommendations has been fully satisfied.
