Georgia is a European country where traditional European values are both natural and treasured. As an ancient Christian state, Georgia has always looked to Europe as the main bastion of Christianity. We are the country of Ilia Chavchavadze and Vazha-Pshavela, who made European values the guiding theme of Georgian civic thought.
It is our responsibility, before Georgia’s history and our great ancestors, to make Georgia a full-fledged member of the European family. Accordingly, our national goal is for Georgia to become a member state of the European Union by 2030, and we will spare no effort to achieve this.
It must be emphasized that Georgia–European Union relations are, by their very nature, bilateral and can only remain so. We are a proud and dignified nation with a great history. Accordingly, it is categorically unacceptable for us to view integration into the European Union as an act of charity that the European Union must grant us. Furthermore, we believe that Georgia, with its rich culture and potential, can enrich the European Union just as much as the European Union can enrich Georgia.
Against this backdrop, it is categorically unacceptable for the Georgian people to tolerate attempts by some European politicians and bureaucrats to present Georgia–European Union relations as a unilateral phenomenon. Even more unacceptable is the cascade of insults we have been hearing from these individuals over the years.
The ill-wishers of our country have turned the European Parliament into an unsheathed weapon of blackmail against Georgia, which is a great shame for the European Union. Over the past three years, the European Parliament has adopted five resolutions filled with falsehoods and insults, resolutions that were supported neither by the Georgian public nor by the European Commission or the European Council.
All of Georgia witnessed the interference of some European politicians and bureaucrats in the parliamentary elections, which constitutes a blatant violation of democratic electoral principles. Today, these same individuals are attacking legitimate elections. Moreover, they are targeting the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission, which assessed the elections as competitive, with the same zeal as the leaders of the radical opposition in Georgia.
We also see that European politicians and bureaucrats are using allocated grants and loans as tools of blackmail against Georgia. We all remember how, just two weeks before the 2021 elections, they planned to cancel a 75-million-euro loan for Georgia in an attempt to exert illegitimate influence on the elections. Similar steps were taken ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections, but they failed to have any impact on the choice of the Georgian people. The use of financial blackmail is an insulting practice that will never be acceptable to the proud Georgian people.
We all remember how the issue of candidate status was used to blackmail Georgia, to introduce unrest in the country, and to divide the public. Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, at a time when Georgia most needed a calm environment, some European politicians and bureaucrats used the topic of candidate status as a tool to attempt a revolution in the country. Organizations funded by the European Union were openly involved in these attempts at revolution. For nearly two years, the issue of candidate status was used as a primary instrument to fuel radicalism and so-called polarization in Georgia, once again highlighting an unhealthy attitude toward the country.
And now, we see that these individuals have replaced candidate status with the opening of negotiations. Today, the opening of negotiations is being used as a tool to blackmail our country and divide the public, just as candidate status was used before. This too is entirely artificial, especially considering that the date of accession does not depend in any way on the date of opening negotiations.
What matters is not when we open negotiations but when we conclude them. As you know, Georgia began negotiations on signing the Association Agreement, the Free Trade Agreement, and obtaining visa-free travel later than Ukraine and Moldova. However, in all three cases, Georgia achieved success earlier or simultaneously with these countries. Let me also remind you that Montenegro and Serbia opened negotiations with the European Union in 2012 and 2014, respectively, yet this did not accelerate their European integration in the slightest. As for Turkey, the European Union suspended its negotiations entirely in 2016, despite having started them in 2005.
From a technical point of view, it takes only a year and a half to two years from the opening of negotiations to membership in the European Union. However, no plans for EU expansion eastward exist until 2030. This clearly demonstrates how artificial – and, therefore, extremely insulting – the blackmail is, carried out by some European politicians and bureaucrats against the Georgian state using the topic of opening negotiations.
Moreover, against this backdrop, Georgia is not being asked for reforms but for actions that amount to renouncing its dignity. These include repealing the law on the transparency of NGOs, repealing the law against LGBT propaganda, imposing sanctions that would collapse Georgia’s economy with our own hands, releasing Mikheil Saakashvili, and more.
We will move toward the European Union only with dignity. This is the mandate of Georgian public – the 1,120,000 voters who firmly expressed their trust in the Georgian Dream and its course.
Taking all of the above into account, we have decided not to place the issue of opening negotiations with the European Union on the agenda until the end of 2028. Additionally, we are declining all budgetary grants from the European Union until the end of 2028.
The end of 2028 is the time when Georgia will be adequately prepared, in economic terms, to open negotiations for European Union membership in 2030. We are not stopping; we will continue fulfilling the commitments outlined in the Association Agenda and the Free Trade Agreement. As stated in the government program approved today, by 2028, we will have completed more than 90 percent of these commitments. Moreover, all these obligations will be fulfilled with our own funding, without any financial assistance from the European Union. We intend to join the European Union not through begging or standing on one leg but with dignity, equipped with a well-functioning democratic system and a strong economy.
We will continue our path toward the European Union, but we will not allow anyone to keep us in a constant state of blackmail and manipulation, which is entirely insulting to our country and the public. We believe that today’s decision will make a significant contribution to improving relations between Georgia and the European Union. We must clearly demonstrate to those European politicians and bureaucrats who are entirely devoid of European values that they must speak to Georgia with dignity, not through blackmail and insults. Using the issue of opening negotiations as a tool for dividing and manipulating the public causes serious reputational damage to the European Union in Georgia. Today’s decision will help the European Union avoid this reputational harm.
In conclusion, we want to boldly reaffirm that by 2030, Georgia will be more prepared for membership of the European Union than any other candidate country. Georgia will join the European Union only through peace, dignity, and prosperity. This is our promise to the Georgian people, and we will undoubtedly fulfill it.
