Georgia is granted European Union’s candidate status
- 15 December, 06:13
The European Commission granted Georgia the long-awaited candidate status for the accession to the European Union.
President of the Council Charles Michel announced this on December 14.
“EUCO granted candidate status to Georgia. And the EU will open negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina once the necessary degree of compliance with the membership criteria is reached and has invited the commission to report by March with a view to taking such a decision. A clear signal of hope for their people and for our continent,” Michel wrote in his Twitter account.
In addition, European leaders decided to start negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova over the two countries’ accession to the European Union.
Before the decision, the General Secretariat of the European Council released a report backing candidacy status to the South Caucasus republic.
During a press conference in Brussels on November 8, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised the Georgian government’s collaboration with the EU in the past months, while also calling on Tbilisi to carry out reforms. The European Commission urged Tbilisi to ensure full respect for fundamental rights, including media freedom and pluralism, freedom of opinion, assembly and expression, and the protection of LGBT people from intimidation as well as violence and discrimination.
