Georgia Submits First Part of the EU Questionnaire
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
The Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Gharibashvili delivered the completed first part of the European Commission questionnaire to the EU Ambassador to Georgia H.E. Carl Hartzell.
“I have the honor to provide you with our answers to the European Commission questionnaire in order to prepare a conclusion on Georgia's application for membership in the European Union,” Gharibashvili said, marking this day as the paramount stage of Georgia’s European integration.
The press service also quoted the EU Ambassador as saying: “I would like to thank you and emphasize that it is a great honor for me to be a part of another historic moment and to stand by your side on the path to this civilized election.”
Georgia submitted its application for EU membership on March 3, and on April 11 received a questionnaire from the European Commission on its membership. On April 15, given the high public interest, the government made it public.
The first part of the document consisted of 369 questions, assessing Georgia's readiness to accept candidate status by political and economic criteria.
On April 29, the authorities released the second part of the document. It contains almost 2300 questions, clarifying how well the Georgian legislation is adapted to the European one, how much it can be amended, and the readiness of Georgia to fulfill the obligations imposed by the EU membership. In both parts of the document, the European Commission calls on the authorities to substantiate the answers with specific examples.
The government has until May 13 to answer the second part of the questionnaire. Based on these documents, the European Commission will prepare an evaluation report on granting the candidate status to the country, with the relevant decision expected by the end of June.
The President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili congratulated everyone on the important event on Twitter:
“A big step has been taken today. Georgia joins Ukraine and Moldova and submits an EU membership questionnaire. This is what unites our 3 countries. It is important that our nation is and remains united in this historical process. Congratulations!”
The NGOs called on the government to publish the answers to the questionnaire or present an argument on what basis is the information made confidential under Georgian law. 30 Organizations signed the statement, citing the law ‘public information may be kept confidential only if it constitutes a professional, personal, commercial or state secret’ and indicating that if the information contains such secrets, relevant parts should be encrypted and the rest should be made public.
CSOs also pointed out that according to a recent survey, 88% of the population is in favor of EU membership and the government must ensure the transparency, openness, and involvement of stakeholders in the process.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Ilia Darchiashvili indicated earlier on that that the government was not going to make the answers public. “We did not have an obligation of publicity, but due to high public interest, we made part of the questionnaire public. As for the part of the answers, there are issues, the disclosure of which is not desirable and expedient, therefore, in the part of publicity we will be limited only to the questionnaire.”
Georgian government decided to make an expedited application for EU candidate status on March 2 after Ukraine made an expedited application for EU membership on February 28 amid the ongoing war. Moldova also applied for accelerated EU membership on March 3. Both countries have already submitted completed questionnaires.
Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova are EU member states and participants of the EU’s Eastern Partnership Initiative. In May 2021, the three countries formed the ‘Associated Trio’ to strengthen relations with Brussels.
