The need to be unified has never been more urgent, Alex Raufoglu, a Washington-based journalist, cited the US Department of State spokesperson as saying on Tuesday, ahead of the European Union’s forthcoming decision later this year whether to grant Georgia its membership candidate status.
“The US urges the Georgian Government and other stakeholders to come together now and work to implement reforms required to achieve the EU candidate status”, the journalist tweeted.
Georgia applied for EU membership in March 2022, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, along with the latter and Moldova, and unlike the duo – who were granted the bloc’s full candidacy with conditions in June of the last year – Georgia received a European perspective and a reform agenda for implementation to obtain the status later.
Tbilisi called the move “historic”, but “unfair and politically grounded”, with the Government officials hinting at the West’s alleged attempts to “drag” Georgia into the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The European Commission has been scheduled to assess Georgia’s implementation of the conditions in its October report, which will be used by the European Council in December to decide on Tbilisi’s candidacy.
Last week, the ruling Georgian Dream party announced impeachment procedures against President Salome Zourabichvili in response to her ongoing EU trip to “support obtaining the status” , after the Government officially rejected the visits.
The party said the President had violated the country’s constitution by unauthorized visits, reminding her the Government, not the President, had the right to implement domestic and foreign policies.