Georgian Vice Parliament Speaker Gia Volski said on Monday that the recent statement of EU Ambassador Carl Hartzell that Georgia could have been better prepared for the membership of the bloc, raised “additional question marks,” as many EU member states suffered similar or more serious flaws than Georgia.
In his statement on Monday Hartzell pointed at shortcomings in the country’s electoral and judiciary systems, recalled an attack on journalists on July 5, 2021 by right-wing activists and the abolishment of the country’s State Inspector’s Service.
“It is hard to do everything. A lot of reforms are to be implemented. Hartzell’s statement raises additional questions on, for instance, what he meant when he mentioned July 5. Such violence takes place in every European country. People are jailed both in Georgia and in Europe if they commit crimes. As for electoral reforms, Georgia is far ahead of many European states in this regard. In its assessments the US embassy said that the flaws which were observed during recent Georgian elections could not make any influence on the results of the polls,” Volski said.
Hartzell vowed the EU would stand by Georgia no matter whether it would grant the country a candidate status or not.
Georgia officially applied for EU membership on March 3 of this year and is expecting the response from the bloc on its status in the coming weeks.
