Pawel Herczynski, the European Union Ambassador to Georgia, and other ambassadors of the European Union member states to Georgia, on Tuesday hosted Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili on a working lunch to discuss the country’s integration process to the bloc. 

The meeting came following large protests in Tbilisi earlier this month over the controversial foreign agents bill, described as a Russian law by the diplomats, and the forthcoming European Commission recommendations to the EU Council in October whether to grant Georgia the bloc’s membership candidate status. 

The PM briefed the diplomats over his government's steps planned before October and the country’s overall efforts on its European integration path, the government press office said. 

Georgia applied for EU membership in March 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The European Council in June granted Georgia European perspective and outlined 12-conditions for obtaining its candidate status, while it granted the status to Ukraine and Moldova with conditions. 

The Georgian government has several times assessed the decision as “unfair”, and stressed that in the case of a “merit-based decision” the country would receive the status this year.