Georgia should receive candidate status this fall – Hungarian FM

Péter Szijjártó, the Hungarian Foreign Minister, on Tuesday said Georgia “deserved” the European Union membership candidate status, and Tbilisi should get it this fall, following the meeting with his Georgian counterpart Ilia Darchiashvili in Budapest. 

 

“We believe that Georgia should receive candidate status in the fall. Georgia did everything for it. The decision on Georgia’s candidate status is a political issue, and we request this political commitment from the EU, a political decision that should be made in the fall”, he said. 

 

Szijjártó stressed his country had attached “great importance” to cooperation with the countries of the Caucasus region, which he claimed was evidenced by a scheduled joint summit on October 11-12 in Tbilisi, with the participation of Georgian and Hungarian officials. 

 

He also highlighted Georgia’s “special role” for the EU in terms of security and energy diversification. 

 

For his part, Darchiashvili, who also addressed an ambassadorial of Hungarian diplomats, on Tuesday said his country expected “another historic decision” by the members of the EU states this year and granting the “deserved” status. 

 

He also said the country’s EU aspirations had “never been as strong as it is today”, after extending his gratitude to the Hungarian Government for their “firm support” for Georgia’s EU integration.