On Monday 24 April, ahead of a lunch with their Georgian counterpart, Ilia Darchiashvili, the foreign ministers of the EU Member States called on Georgia to continue its reforms to bring it closer to the EU, particularly with regard to the rule of law and justice.
“Georgia is making significant progress, but more reforms are needed”, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell summed up after the Council, adding that democracy needed to be strengthened.
Last June, Georgia was granted the European perspective and must make progress on the twelve priorities identified by the European Commission in order for the Commission to recommend that Georgia be granted candidate status for EU membership.
“The ball is in Georgia’s court”, said Lithuanian Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis. “So far, we have not seen anything that would make us more optimistic” about the country, he said.
For the Czech minister, Jan Lipavský, “there is a lot of work to do”. He wished to see “the European way for Georgia and that the whole Georgian society can participate in it”.
For his part, Italian Minister Antonio Tajani spoke in favour of Georgia’s status as an EU candidate. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)