PM Garibashvili: Georgia deserves EU candidate status more than Ukraine, Moldova

If someone deserves the EU candidate status, it is Georgia, only after Ukraine and Moldova. Georgia is 10 times ahead of both states in terms of democratic reforms and the whole of Europe is well aware of this, Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili said on Monday at the regular governmental meeting.

“When some say that Ukraine is at war and that is why the country deserves the candidate status, sorry, but we [Georgia] do not want a war, we are demanding a deserved status,” Garibashvili said.

He suggested that Georgia would wait for the EU decision on the candidate status.

“We have deserved the status thanks to the pace of reforms over the past nine years. If the EU decision [on the candidate status] is not fair, I will myself explain the reasons in detail to the public which could push the decision, including the reasons behind the recent disgraceful resolution,” Garibashvili stated, referring to the recent resolution by the European Parliament on media freedom in Georgia which also called on sanctions on the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili and the transfer of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili abroad for treatment.

Garibashvili said that “If not Ivanishvili, we would not have had a country today.”

“If Bidzina Ivanishvili had not come to power [in 2012] we would not have a country today, because he would be involved in the war.  We would have a second Mariupol,” Garibashvili said, slamming the previous United National Movement authorities of “being provoked by Russians,” to get involved in a war back in 2008, “resulting in lost territories, thousands of IDPs, hundreds of victims.”

He said that the EP resolution was “anti-state and anti-Georgian,” blaming the European People’s Party (EPP), “which is allied with the United National Movement,” of pushing it.