Paweł Herczyński, the  European Union Ambassador to Georgia, on Tuesday said he “hoped” the bloc’s member states would consider the European Commission’s positive recommendation issued this month and grant Tbilisi the membership candidate status in mid-December.

In his press comments, the diplomat claimed the EU Council would “carefully” discuss the  recommendation and the decision of the status would be made on December 14-15. 

The Ambassador further said some of nine conditions, which came along with the European Commission’s positive recommendation to the Council on November 8, were new, while others were part of ongoing reforms. 

"Some steps are new, such as fighting disinformation, struggling with information manipulation from abroad, election issues, and post-election issues. The elections next year should be maximally fair and free," he said, and stressed the completion of each step was  "crucial ". 

"I have great hope that the decision made on December 15 by the 27 EU member states on granting candidate status to Georgia will be positive, and it will be a very strong signal from the EU that its door is open to Georgia. It will be an opportunity for all political leaders in Georgia to merge forces and make as much progress as possible”, Herczyński said. 

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