Pawel Herczynski: I hope that the EU member states will take into account the recommendation of the European Commission and make a positive decision on granting Georgia candidate status

I hope that the member states will take into account the recommendation of the European Commission and make a positive decision on granting the candidate status to Georgia, said the Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia, Pawel Herczynski.

According to him, this will be a very strong signal from the European Union that its door is open to Georgia.

"As we all know, on November 8, the European Commission gave a positive recommendation on granting Georgia candidate status. The 27 member states of the European Union will discuss the mentioned recommendation of the European Commission at the next European Council. There is a meeting of 27 EU leaders, heads of state and leaders on December 14 and 15. I hope that the member states will take into account the recommendation of the European Commission and make a positive decision on granting Georgia candidate status. Along with its positive recommendation, the European Commission also set nine steps, we call them steps. We will see if the member states confirm them. Some of these nine steps are very familiar because they are the former 12 priorities that are still in the implementation phase. So there is a work in progress.

Some steps are new, for example, the fight against disinformation, the fight against the manipulation of information from abroad, the issue of elections, the issue of upcoming elections. Next year, the election process should be as fair and free as possible," said Pawel Herczynski.

Pawel Herczynski noted that all steps are equally important.

"As to which step is the most important - all of them are equally important, and we want to see progress on all of them. What is very important is not to wait, but to make sure that the implementation of the nine steps begins as early as possible, and of course, as always, the process is very important. So, we want everyone to play their role, the government to be inclusive, the opposition to be constructive and to see as much progress as possible so that Georgia can move to the next steps as quickly as possible, start accession negotiations, complete accession negotiations and become a member of the European Union," Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia said.

Pawel Herczynski hopes that the decision of the European Council will be positive and will contribute to the depolarization of the Georgian political spectrum.

"I have great hope that the decision taken by the 27 member states on December 15 to grant Georgia candidate status will be positive and will contribute to the depolarization of the political spectrum. This will be a very strong signal from the European Union that its door is open to Georgia, and it will be an opportunity that all political leaders in Georgia should take advantage of and implement the necessary reforms as quickly as possible. There is a guide in the form of nine separate steps. We hope that progress will be made before the elections. We should not wait for elections. There is a need to catch up with the EU as quickly as possible and take advantage of the candidate status and move on to the next steps, speed up the process and celebrate not only the candidate status, but also the start of the accession negotiations, the closing of the other stages and then the EU membership.

A lot has been done regarding the implementation of the 12 priorities, especially in the last few months, since the visit of Josep Borrell. We have made progress on many fronts, but there is still much work to be done. We spoke to the Prime Minister and many ministers. I believe there is a very strong will for reforms to be carried out, but let's see, there are calls and what we need now is to implement them. I hope that their implementation will start immediately so that we can bring Georgia closer to EU membership, which is the clear desire of the absolute majority of the population of Georgia," said Pawel Herczynski.

*The quotes in the article have been double-translated from Georgian and wordings may be inaccurate.