The European Union’s ambassador to Georgia, Pawel Herczynski, has said that Georgia has taken a step back and is far from any hope of joining the bloc anytime soon, Reuters reports.
Following the scathing assessment from Brussels, Herczynski said the South Caucasus country is further away from EU membership than it was in 2023, when it was granted candidate status.
The European Commission report said the EU could welcome new members as early as 2030, and praised Montenegro, Ukraine and Moldova for their progress in implementing necessary reforms. Meanwhile, Georgia was accused of a serious deterioration in democracy and the former Soviet bloc country was now considered a candidate country “on paper only.” Herczynski told reporters in Tbilisi that the report was deeply damaging to Georgia’s efforts to move towards the EU. He added that Georgia is not on track to become an EU member state, either in 2030 or ever after.
Georgia was once one of the most democratic and Western-oriented countries of the former Soviet Union, but since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, its government has become increasingly authoritarian.
Economic cooperation with Russia has also strengthened.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has cracked down on opposition politicians, and several are in prison. The number of protesters arrested in almost daily anti-government protests has also increased. The ruling party has announced that it is freezing accession talks, while at the same time indicating that it wants to become a member of the bloc, but only if it can preserve traditional Orthodox values.
The speaker of the Georgian parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, said that the EU report showed a desire to subject Tbilisi to political and ideological dictates. He added that blackmail and pressure will not work, and Georgia will not give in. The politician also stressed that Georgia will continue to prepare the country for membership in the bloc.
Georgian Dream announced in late October that it would file a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court, asking to ban three opposition parties, as they pose a real threat to the constitutional order. The opposition parties have rejected the accusation, saying it is politically motivated.
Read also: Protesters try to seize presidential palace in Tbilisi; PM accuses EU of incitement
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