Irakli Kobakhidze Attributes Georgia's Failure to Obtain EU Candidacy Status to Global War Party
By Liza Mchedlidze
Friday, June 16, 2023
Irakli Kobakhidze, the chairman of the Georgian Dream party, discussed Georgia's unsuccessful bid for candidate status in the European Union in 2022. He expressed his belief that the Global War Party holds significant influence over the European Union, which ultimately hindered Georgia's candidacy. However, Kobakhidze refrained from providing specific details about the members or entities comprising the Global War Party.
"Why it's easy for a global war party to influence the EU: When a decision is made on the status of a candidate, full consensus is required. Just one opposing vote out of the 27 countries is enough to prevent the candidate from being granted status. This highlights how easily the global war party can exert its influence," stated Kobakhidze during his appearance on Public Broadcaster.
He declined to disclose the identity of those associated with the Global War Party and emphasized that the failure to obtain the status was not a result of the European Union's influence, but rather attributed it to this party.
"I won't name it, I can't name it because I don't want to create awkwardness. [...] We cannot solely hold the European Union responsible for this as their decision-making process is delicate. Even the removal of just one out of the 27 countries is insufficient for the candidate to receive the status. While we cannot blame the European Union, we can attribute the influence on the European Union to the Global War Party," stated Kobakhidze.
According to Kobakhidze, he can identify "4-5 countries that the global war party can withdraw support from in a single day." Therefore, he believes that whether Georgia will receive the candidate status this year will depend on the political context.
"Their main goal in June last year was to change the situation here - revolution and then the second front, if they see that they will not be able to change the situation in December, to change the government and the second front, in this case the chance of getting the candidate status increases," said Kobakhidze.
