Georgia Presents Report to European Union on Progress Towards Membership Candidacy Status
By Liza Mchedlidze
Thursday, April 20, 2023
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Ilia Darchiashvili, handed over a report prepared for the European Commission to the Ambassador of the European Union in Georgia, Pawel Herczynski.
The report was prepared in accordance with the Copenhagen Criteria as part of the enlargement package. It consists of 35 chapters that describe the legislative, institutional, and other activities carried out by Georgia over the past year to approach the European Union and the progress achieved in this regard.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the report's preparation began at the end of February upon the European Commission's request, and the process was coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All state agencies, legislative bodies, and judicial authorities were involved in the process.
The European Commission will evaluate the report based on the so-called Copenhagen Criteria, which includes political, economic, and sectoral aspects. The evaluation report is expected to be published in the fall of 2023. Based on this report, the European Council will discuss granting Georgia the status of a candidate country by the end of 2023.
The mentioned document is a part of the important work carried out by the Georgian government in the direction of European integration, which will be a very important support mechanism for the European Commission to make a relevant conclusion in October, and the European Council to make a positive decision by the end of the year and grant Georgia the status of a candidate, - the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia said. Ilia Darchiashvili said this after the meeting with the EU ambassador, during which the head of the foreign ministry handed over the first report prepared within the framework of the expansion package to Pawel Herczynski.
According to Darchiashvili, the document reflects the steps taken and reforms carried out by the Georgian authorities since May 2022 and will be an essential part of the discussions within the European Commission.
"I personally presented this document to the EU Ambassador. We had a very interesting meeting during which we discussed all the important steps that Georgia has taken and which are planned in order to fulfill the 12 points of the European Commission within the promised time frame and with the logic included in the recommendations. We also discussed future activities. The most important thing is that the document we shared with the ambassador today and sent to Brussels simultaneously will play a vital role in the decision-making process of the European Commission," said Darchiashvili.
