Kakha Kaladze responded to the MEP Andrew Kubilius's statements regarding the decisive factor of Mikheil Saakashvili's health condition for Georgia's EU candidacy status. Kaladze said that on the way to European integration, the government will play by Georgian rules and act in the national interests of the people, for which, according to him, the government is doing everything.
"If their political decision will be made regarding not giving the status, despite the fact that our government has done everything, is doing everything on this difficult path as part of the European integration, they should not keep that status for themselves," said the mayor.
According to Kaladze, the document can not be valuable, when people are told that a 'philanthropist' Ivanishvili should be sanctioned.
"I said in the morning that I did not expect anything new or different from the resolution, and the result is really the same. There is nothing new about the resolution, it has no value. When lies, forgery and patronage of criminals are spoken of with direct references, this resolution certainly cannot have a serious face.
According to Tbilisi Mayor, the ruling Georgian Dream party and himself have been doing everything in their power to make Georgia join the European Union faster. Kaladze added that not granting Georgia a EU candidacy status was a 'political decision':
"To be honest, since 2012, our government has been doing everything and is still doing everything to make our country a member of the big family called Europe as quickly as possible. We implemented many specific projects. There were many successes despite the difficulties. Even today, we deserved to receive the status, but there was a political decision to not give it. They did this against the government of our country," he said.
Kakha Kaladze accused MEPs of blackmailing and playing 'games' and said that Georgian authorities will only play according to the interests of the country:
"It's part of the game and the blackmail that we've been seeing all this time, and that's what the public is seeing. The government of Georgia will play by Georgian rules, act in the interests of the country and act in the national interests of our people. If their political decision will be made regarding the granting of the status, despite the fact that our government has done everything, is doing everything on this difficult path in the part of European integration, they should not let us keep that status for themselves," said Kaladze.
