US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan Says Georgia's EU Path Depends on Georgian People
By Liza Mchedlidze
Monday, March 27, 2023
US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan was asked by the reporters about the informal governance of the country by Bidzina Ivanishvili.
In response, Kelly Degnan stated that the decision-making regarding the future of the country is solely based on the will of the Georgian people:
"What I have seen in this country is that decision-making depends on the people of Georgia. I think we saw this about a week ago, when about 100,000 citizens of Georgia took to the streets to peacefully express their decision and their choice regarding the European future."
As Degnan noted, the decision-makers are those citizens who came out all over Georgia to protect the European perspective.
When asked whether Georgia has a chance of getting candidate status under the conditions of informal governance, Kelly Degnan said that the status depends on the reforms defined by the European Union.
"Georgia's acceptance of the candidate status depends on whether Georgia fulfills the reforms that the European Union has set as a guide on Georgia's path to Europe. It depends on everyone, it depends on the parliament, other stakeholders, civil society, which can contribute to the implementation of the necessary reforms.
These are not new reforms, they are what Georgia has been working on step by step and in some cases it has made really good progress. But of course, there is more to do. Don't imagine that this is just a one-man project, it's for the entire population of Georgia, for all elected leaders to come together and work inclusively and stop spending so much time fighting each other and spend more time implementing the 12 recommendations to truly improve democracy in Georgia.
This is what the member states of the European Union are waiting for, to see if Georgia is committed to democracy, if Georgia is strong for the building of democracy, and that the population of Georgia is also committed to it. This is what they want to see. And I hope that the government will listen to them, listen to its own people and take the necessary steps," said Degnan.
