Analena Berbock on Georgia’s EU membership JAMnews

Analena Berbock on Georgia’s EU membership

German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock said the prospect of EU enlargement was real and explained that Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkan countries would become EU members. Berbock repeated the same thing for Georgia, but added that it was a longer-term perspective.

“We made it clear that Ukraine, Moldova, the Western Balkan countries and, in the long term, Georgia would also become members of the EU. I don’t know if anyone would have thought of this even five years ago. But it also means that we must take bold steps to ensure that the EU of the future, with more than 30 members, becomes a strong and capable union,” Berbock said.

Georgia applied for EU membership on March 3, 2022, after which the Georgian government received the questionnaire from the European Commission. The ruling Georgian Dream party delivered the completed questionnaire to Brussels in May.

On June 17, 2022, the European Commission prepared an opinion on granting EU candidate status to Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova. As a result, Ukraine and Moldova received it and had to fulfill certain obligations, while Georgia must first fulfill the 12-point plan prescribed by the European Commission and will then have a chance to obtain the status of candidate.

On June 22, 2023, it became known that Georgia had fully implemented three of the 12 recommendations. This is according to the interim report, which assesses the extent to which Georgia has implemented the prescribed plan.

The report was presented to EU member state foreign ministers at a meeting in Stockholm on June 22. Before that, on June 21, the European Commission presented the report to EU ambassadors in Brussels.

As for Moldova, whose progress was also assessed with Georgia, Moldova now has nine recommendations to implement and three fully implemented (democratic reforms, dialogue with civil society and protection of human rights) .

Ukraine has now fully implemented two of the seven recommendations regarding judicial reform and media legislation.