On 7 November 2024, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament held confirmation hearing, during which Marta Kos, Slovenian candidate and Commissioner-designate addressed, among other issues, the prospects of Georgia’s EU integration against the background of the country’s democratic decline.
Asked about what minimum requirements must be met by the Georgian government to reactivate the EU accession process, and how she sees EU supporting democratic reforms in coming years, the Commissioner-designate said her message to the people of Georgia is “don’t give up the hope.” She said: “We are ready to go on with the enlargement process. The first conditions would be that the government of Georgia show us that they are willing to go this way,” adding that EU would first expect the abolishment of Foreign Agents and anti-LGBT laws. She said EU is ready to support Georgia on its EU integration path and that it has prepared the financial package for supporting reforms and “also for the civil society.”
“Civil society is a kind of watchdog over the governments, not only in the candidate countries but also in the member states,” said the Commissioner-designate, adding that in case of Georgia she plans “to get a really good overview of…which organizations, which individuals are those who would be really the strongest voice of democratic development in Georgia and then I will work on this.”
“Nothing is done yet and nothing is finished yet” she said, expressing hope for the European Parliament support in continuing helping Georgia.
“There is still hope that with the support of democratic forces and perhaps, also with the action of the government they will come back to European path,”- said Marta Kos and reiterated that the first precondition is getting rid “of the laws that are against the European values.”
The European Commission issued an official recommendation to grant Georgia candidate status on 8 November 2023. However, the negotiation process with the Georgian government was frozen due to the government’s decisions to adopt anti-democratic laws, including the so-called Foreign Agents law.
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