EU has no right to dictate candidate countries’ ties with other governments, MP Samkharadze

The European Union has no right to tell candidate countries which foreign governments they can maintain friendly relations with, Georgian Parliament Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Nikoloz Samkharadze said, criticising recent remarks by EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos about ties with US President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.

“This is about the United States, which is the EU’s main partner and the main guarantor of security in Europe. Therefore, Marta Kos’s statement was strange,” Samkharadze said.

He noted that Kos had not made similar remarks about EU member states maintaining relations with the new US administration.

“Here too, we see a division into first- and second-class countries. Apparently, if you are an EU member state, you are allowed to have relations with America, but if you are a candidate country, you are not allowed to be friends with the US administration,” Samkharadze said.

He argued that such statements were damaging to the EU itself because they could fuel frustration and resentment in candidate countries and further undermine the bloc’s image.

“It creates the impression among people that the EU may not actually want enlargement,” he said.

Samkharadze was responding to Kos’s recent comments that countries seeking EU membership should distance themselves from Trump’s MAGA movement and avoid becoming dependent on forces whose interests conflict with the EU’s long-term interests.