The report of the European Commission is a confirmation that the talks about the termination of the EU enlargement process concerning Georgia are groundless, Chairman of the European Integration Committee of the Georgian Parliament Maka Bochorishvili said at a briefing.
The European Commission on Wednesday released the latest report on EU enlargement, which assesses the work done by each candidate country on its way to the EU.
“The submitted report once again confirms that Georgia, along with other candidate countries, is an integral part of the EU enlargement policy. And talks about stopping the EU enlargement process with regard to Georgia are groundless,” Bochorishvili said.
According to her, the report gives a rather positive assessment of the quality of Georgia's legislative and institutional compliance with the EU requirements.
The report speaks about progress in such spheres as education, public finance management, transport, energy, statistics, social policy, employment and protection of labor rights, production and industrial policy, policy of support for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Georgia was also positively assessed in fulfilling the requirements of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement.
In addition, the work to prevent the use of Georgia's territory to circumvent anti-Russian sanctions was positively assessed.
“Despite the fact that there is criticism in certain areas in the report, which is not alien to the EU integration process, Georgia has no setback in the indicators determining the overall level of readiness,” Bochorishvili stated.
According to her, on the contrary, despite the challenges that the Georgian authorities had to cope with during the current year, the progress recorded in the report is really welcomed and appreciated.
Regarding the recommendations in the report, which cover 35 spheres, Bochorishvili said that all of them will be taken into account as much as possible.
“We will carefully study each recommendation, deeply analyze and take into account as much as possible in the process of further implementation of the association's plan,” Bochorishvili said.
At the same time, she emphasized that given the progress made and the available experience, the Georgian authorities have an ambition to fulfill more than 90% of the obligations under the association agreement with the European Union by 2028.
“By doing so, Georgia will reach the highest point of rapprochement with the European Union, and solid grounds will be created to be the most ready for EU membership among the candidate countries in 2030,” Bochorishvili emphasized.
The other side of the coin
The report gives a negative assessment to the adoption of the law “On Transparency of Foreign Influence” in Georgia this spring. It says that the adoption of the legislative initiative, which was withdrawn a year earlier, “was followed by other negative developments that do not reflect the government's stated commitment to the path to the EU”.
According to the report, by adopting the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, Georgia has departed from the European Commission's recommendations.
When the European Commission recommended last year that Georgia be granted EU candidate status, it also listed nine steps that the country should take to further advance in the EU.
The criticism also refers to Georgia's parliamentary elections held on October 26. The report citing the conclusion of the joint international election observation mission led by the OSCE/ODIHR states that violations were recorded.
It says the elections were held in a tense and highly polarized environment. Among the shortcomings listed are recent amendments to the Electoral Code, frequent violations of the secrecy of the vote, procedural inconsistencies, intimidation and pressure on voters, which negatively affected public confidence in the electoral process.
“These preliminary findings confirm the need for comprehensive electoral reform, which has already been emphasized in previous key recommendations,” the report said.
Although it also says the electoral system is generally in line with international standards.
Reprinted from https://sputnik-georgia.ru
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