PM Garibashvili Pays Official Visit to Brussels
By Khatia Bzhalava
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Within the framework of an official two-day visit to Brussels, Irakli Garibashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia holds bilateral meetings at the European Council, Commission, and Parliament, as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The main topics on the agenda are the European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, matters related to the EU Accession Questionnaire, as well as the regional security situation.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister met with Charles Michel, President of the European Council. According to the official statement, during the meeting, the parties held extensive discussions on the process of reviewing Georgia's application, also the country's progress toward implementing the Association Agreement and carrying out democratic reforms. Garibashvili thanked Charles Michel for his effort toward supporting Georgia's path to European integration.
“The Prime Minister underlined Georgia's historical choice to return to the European family, emphasizing in this context the importance of the European Commission's opinion and the European Council's decision on granting Georgia the status of a candidate country,” the statement of the governmental press service reads.
The sides also focused on the regional security issues concerning Russia's military aggression in Ukraine, as well as the state of affairs in Georgia's occupied territories. Garibashvili highlighted that ending the war in Ukraine is crucially important to everyone and that ‘the consequences of this war will define the future of both the whole world and Georgia’.
The Prime Minister also met with the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and discussed the prospects of granting a status of an EU Candidate Country to Georgia. The Head of the Government of Georgia emphasized the unwavering support demonstrated by the European Parliament and EU institutions in Georgia’s path to European integration. The extended meeting was followed by a face-to-face meeting between the Prime Minister of Georgia and the President of the European Parliament. After the meeting, the prime minister wrote on Twitter that the submission of the membership questionnaire by the Georgian Government during the "recent geopolitical shifts" stood as another confirmation of the "irreversibility of European choice of Georgian people".
