Kobakhidze: European Commission, Not Georgia, Decided to Suspend Political Dialogue in June 2024

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has said that the European Commission, rather than the Georgian government, made the decision to suspend political dialogue with Georgia in June 2024, months before Tbilisi announced its position on EU accession negotiations.

Speaking at the EU Enlargement Summit organised by Euronews in Brussels, Kobakhidze said the Georgian government’s announcement concerned the removal of the opening of EU accession negotiations from its immediate political agenda.

“The decision was that the opening of the EU accession process would not be on the agenda. That was my personal statement. However, we made it clear that if the European Commission decided to open accession negotiations, we would immediately engage in the process,” Kobakhidze said.

The Prime Minister maintained that the European Commission had already taken steps to suspend political dialogue with Georgia before the Georgian government made its announcement.

“Ultimately, it was the European Commission, not us, that decided to suspend political dialogue with Georgia in June 2024, before we made that statement,” he said.

Kobakhidze argued that the Georgian government’s position was a response to what he described as the European Commission’s unfair treatment of the country.

“We were responding to the European Commission’s general policy, which we considered unfair. We realised that the European Commission was using the issue of candidate status at the first stage, and the opening of accession negotiations at the next stage, to blackmail Georgia and Georgian society,” he said.