PM Garibashvili:“maximum coordination” required to fill EU membership questionnaire on time

Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili says that “maximum coordination” and “effective work” is required from all state agencies for a questionnaire for Georgia’s EU integration, containing 369 questions, to be filled timely and returned back to the EU.

 

Georgia received the document from the EU on Monday in the wake of the country’s bid for EU membership in early March.

 

The questionnaire will be used by the EU to decide whether or not to grant a candidate country status to Georgia, a mandatory stage before accession to the bloc.

 

The Georgian Government stated today that it would make the questionnaire public as there was a high interest in it.

 

Shortly before the document was released:

 

“The delivery of the questionnaire by the EU is a great responsibility for us to strengthen our efforts on the path to EU membership. Now we need maximum coordination of all agencies to complete the questionnaire on time and return the completed document to the EU,” Garibashvili said earlier today.

 

He stated that the European Commission is expected to present its conclusion, based on the questionnaire, at the end of June.

 

Garibashvili said that working groups, with the involvement of all state agencies, would ensure the “effective work”  to fill the  questionnaire in a timely manner, while he would “personally control the process.”

 

The opposition claims that they addressed the EU for the government to make the document public, while the Georgian Dream party MPs stated that “there is nothing in the document we are afraid of.”

 

Georgian FM Ilia Darchiashvili stated today that the government “is managing the reform agenda very rapidly and effectively.”