Tbilissi, 3/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Union is close to signing readmission and visa facilitation deals with Georgia but the date when negotiations will start over free trade agreements and an Association Agreement is not yet clear. Under the Lisbon Treaty, once agreed by the EU Council of Ministers, such agreements have to be endorsed by the European Parliament and if everything goes according to plan, then the readmission agreements might be signed in June this year.
Quizzed by reporters after his meeting with Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos on Wednesday 3 March 2010, Georgia's foreign minister, Grigol Vashadze said: : “In my understanding the readmission and facilitation agreement will be finalised and signed not later that this year and the mandate for the Association Agreement and free trade agreement will be issued to the Commission again somewhere right in the end of the spring. Which means that together with mobility agreement and the agreement on aviation, which is going to be initialled next week, we are in a very good position as it comes to the European Union.” He added that a mobility partnership and a deal on aviation might be initialled on Friday (a delegation from DG Transport at the European Commission will arrive in the Georgian capital, Tbilissi, on Thursday to finalise negotiations over a broad aviation agreement), commenting that Georgia was pleased with its relations with the European Union.
Moratinos, who arrived to Georgia earlier in the day at the head of an EU delegation (replacing EU High Representative Catherine Ashton), said that the EU's aim was to send a clear signal that Georgia is a crucial EU partner. At a press conference after the meeting with Vashadze, Moratinos said that the EU supported Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty. At their meeting, the two politicians had discussed Georgia's new governance strategy for its 'occupied territories' that was adopted in January 2010 and rules out the use of force. The strategy includes measures to prevent the two separatist regions being cut off from the rest of Georgia and includes social and economic measures to help the inhabitants of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. They also discussed the work of the EU's observer mission in Georgia, EUMM, whose mandate will soon be extended, along with the question of non-recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela refuse to recognise their independence). During his visit, Moratinos also went to Upper Lars, the only border crossing currently open between Russia and Georgia, which opened on 1 March this year. (A.By. trans fl)