The European Union will grant Georgia EU candidate status because a refusal would disappoint the Georgian people and bring Georgia closer to Russia, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said on June 29 in an interview with CNN.
He expressed his confidence that Georgia has great chances to join the EU, and the EU has already provided a European perspective by presenting a list of 12 requirements for granting candidate status.
“The next step is to get candidate status, and in this soft war we have with Russia, I think the EU cannot lose Georgia, let the Georgian people down again and give Russia an easy place to play.”– said the president of Georgia.
He added that the EU will make a critical strategic decision on Georgia until the end of 2023, taking into account democratic reforms and “a process that in the last period is not as satisfactory as it should be”.
Recall that Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has been in conflict with the ruling Georgian Dream party in recent months. On June 22, she pardoned Nikoloz Gvaramia, general director of the opposition television channel Mtavari, former Minister of Justice and partner of Mikheil Saakashvili, convicted of embezzlement.
In this regard, the president of the ruling party, Irakli Kobakhidze, said that Zurabishvili is an agent of the West, who pardoned another agent.
Earlier, in the interim report of the European Commission on the implementation by Georgia of the recommendations for obtaining EU candidate status on the issue “media pluralism”, the lack of progress was noted, including due to the verdict from Gvaramia.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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