“If not in 2023, then in 2025. We deserved the opening of [accession] negotiations, let alone the candidate status, already last year, but it’s a political matter and we cannot go deep into this. We hope that a fair decision will be made in December 2024,” said Irakli Kobakhidze. The chairman of the ruling party is confident that Georgia will be able to join the European Union earlier than Ukraine and Moldova, despite receiving the candidate status later. According to Kobakhidze, Georgia is ahead of Ukraine and Moldova in many respects, including democracy and human rights.
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‘‘We have proven in all cases that no matter what turbulent political processes we go through, in the end, we manage to achieve our goals. This was exemplified clearly in the case of the candidate status. We had to go through very difficult processes but ultimately reached success in obtaining the status. We can promise the same regarding the opening of negotiations. When it will happen is a separate matter, but the negotiations will open and we are sure, I can guarantee you, that we will join the European Union before Ukraine and Moldova.
Candidate status was not granted to us last year, but it was granted this year, nothing has changed in practice, and we have not fallen behind in anything. As far as joining is concerned, the date of joining is not affected in any way. You remember that the European Union kept launching certain processes with us later than with Ukraine and Moldova, for example, the negotiations on the signing of the association agreement, the signing of the DCFTA, and the negotiations on visa liberalization, started later with us, but in all three cases, we beat Ukraine and Moldova. Political decisions on paper are one thing, but, in the end, everyone sees that Georgia is way ahead of both Ukraine and Moldova in practice, especially considering the difficult situation Ukraine finds itself in that spread to Moldova in an economic sense. We are way ahead in all respects. In this way, we are convinced that, despite receiving the candidate status later, we will join the European Union much earlier than them,” said Kobakhidze.
On December 14, the leaders of the EU countries decided to officially start negotiations on the accession of Ukraine and Moldova and to grant Georgia the status of a candidate country for EU membership.
