One of the issues that will be coming on to the agenda soon will be the issue of pre-departure checks, which we believe is an important part of stabilizing the system, - EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell told reporters before a conference on visa-free regime and migration.

“We are looking at ways and means of assisting Georgian border police to make an effective job with regard to enforcing the new legislation so that we have minimum disruptions and full legality on all the measures and that it’s understandable and workable. So, we have to reverse the trends. But we have a very strong partner here in Georgia. And I would like to stress that this is about EU-Georgia relationship. And it's going to be very important that all sides, all political sides and all actors here in Georgia are willing to work together to achieve these goals”, the Ambassador said.

Carl Hartzell also talked about the problems relating to asylum seekers and said that fewer Georgians would get asylum.

“We have had problems over many months with regard to unfounded asylum seekers. The asylum system is built to protect people either fleeing from war, conflict or persecution. With regard to the Georgian citizens who have applied for asylum, very, very few will get that asylum claim granted, but it's putting a lot of strains on the system and it's linked to other types of problems, sometimes of a criminal nature, sometimes with regard to using the medical system and so on, in a way that is not compliant with the rules. Hence, I have been working very hard personally, together with some of the member states who have been badly hit. You've just heard the French Ambassador speaking about the French perspective around these things. And I must underline that our cooperation with Georgian authorities has been excellent. We see a dedication and an ambition to solve these problems. Many of these problems are tricky in nature. And we'll have to work together to find the effective means. But we see that we have a strong partner in Georgia in all these efforts, and that's a very good, important starting point”, the EU Ambassador said.

He also mentioned the benefits of visa-free regime both for Georgia and Europe.

“We have seen 500,000 Georgian citizens using the opportunity of the visa free regime. And it's great because it's bringing people together, it's facilitating travel in both directions, it's good for people-to-people contact, it's good for business contacts”, said the Ambassador.