Prime Minister chairs Georgia’s delegation to EU Riga summit
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, May 19
Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili will chair the Georgian delegation at the EU Riga Summit scheduled for May 21-22, Spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry Davit Kereselidze has stated.
Kereselidze stated that Georgia’s Foreign Minister Tamar Beruchashvili will also take part in the important occasion and hold meetings separately and together with the Prime Minister with the leading officials and participants of the summit.
When it comes to the perspectives of the EU gathering, Kereselidze stresses that the Georgian side remains hopeful over the visa liberation prospects.
“When you work hard and when you attain good results, of course you have high hopes…we lack information concerning the EU declaration text; we do not know what will be written down there…however, we are confident that our attempts to join the EU will be appreciated appropriately,” Kereselidze said.
The opposition United National Movement believes that the Riga Summit will be no success for Georgia owing to the current governments “passive steps in terms of foreign policy.”
“The Riga Summit will be the first and most important challenge for the current government and it is highly unlikely for us to gain the visa liberation with the EU states through this event,” the UNM says.
Analyst Levan Bodzashvili also shares the opinion that Georgia will not be granted with the visa free regime in Riga.
However, the analyst believes that the solution might be because of the political situation in the region rather than the incompetence of the current Georgian government.
“There are two aspects: technical and political. Even in the case we meet all the requirements proposed by the EU, we might be rejected for the visa-free regime, as Georgia is still discussed in the context of Ukraine. The EU is rechecking its neighboring policy and we might have to wait until the completion of the process,” the analyst says.
