Representatives of Georgian Parliament met with EU Ambassador to Georgia H.E. Carl Hartzell
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Friday, October 4
The Chair of the Legal Issues Committee, Anri Okhanashvili and the Chair of the EU Integration Committee, Tamar Khulordava met with the EU Ambassador to Georgia H.E. Carl Hartzell and the Diplomatic Missions of the EU Member States to discuss the visa liberalization process, respective upheld and scheduled legal changes and future cooperation aspects.
The meeting was also attended by the ambassadors of France, Estonia, Greece and the Czech Republic.
Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee, Anri Okhanashvili, said that visa liberalization is a very important achievement for Georgia and Georgian society and the EU and other friends of the country strongly support the maintenance and further strengthening of this achievement.
“We discussed visa liberalization related issues, further steps and cooperation. We also talked about the border control issues. There is the Institute of Police Attaches, the representatives of which successfully cooperate with the EU member states. We have agreed with EuroJust and deriving from this agreement the liaison prosecutor will be dispatched to EuroJust. We make strong and proper steps for cooperation with the EU institutions and further approximation. This meeting was dedicated to the analysis and solution of respective challenges. Naturally, we will maintain our achievement and the EU also strongly supports the further discussion around visa liberalization,” said Okhanashvili.
As Khulordava stated, visa-free travel is the outcome of utmost importance in Georgia-EU relations.
“We closely cooperate with our partners – EU member states as we enjoy the visa-free travel to prevent any threat to visa-free for Georgia. Unfortunately, this benefit has increased the number of unsubstantiated asylum-seekers in certain countries especially, and thus, hold the regular exchange of information with our partners from EU,” stressed the Chair of the EU Integration Committee.
Also, according to her, the Committee on European Integration hears the executive authorities' information on the progress of the visa liberalization process twice a year.
“These hearings aim at diligent steps we are to make to maintain our visa-free travel. There are certain legal changes adopted by the Parliament and there are legal changes under consideration. We have consulted with the EU Ambassadors and now, expect the conclusion of the EU mission on border control issues. We discussed also on cooperation between the law-enforcement agencies, readmission and other issues,” noted Khulordava.
While talking with reporters, the EU Ambassador to Georgia commented on the meeting of the Georgian and Russian Foreign Ministers in New York. According to H.E. Carl Hartzell, the EU welcomes Georgia's dialogue with Russia.
“You have probably seen the comments of the EU High Representative, the Spokesperson, who stated that we welcome dialogue because we believe that when it comes to any dimension of heard and that the situation we saw at the administrative boundary line lately is avoided,” said Ambassador with reporters.
Reporters also asked the ambassador to evaluate the statement of the Speaker of the Russian President, saying that Russia sees Georgia-NATO relations as a threat. Hartzell said that he is the EU ambassador and usually does not comment on NATO.
“I just want to point out that every state makes decisions on security issues on their own. This represents their rights. Most of the states that are part of the EU, are also NATO members. So, I think my answer is clear,” noted the ambassador.
Visa liberalization represents one of the most important achievements for Georgia in recent years. Since March of 2017, more than 300,000 Georgian citizens have benefitted from visa-free travel to the Schengen area.
