The European Commission has recommended that the EU grant Georgia candidate status, paving the way for the bloc to begin the country’s ascension process at the EU Council meeting later in December.
If the EU Council follows Wednesday’s recommendation, as it is widely expected to, it would be a reversal of the bloc’s previous decision almost 17 months ago to deny Georgia candidate status while granting it to Ukraine and Moldova.
The two countries applied for membership in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with the Georgian government reluctantly following suit after facing public pressure to do so.
In place of membership candidacy, the EU gave the Georgian Government 12 ‘priorities’ to fulfil before its candidacy would be reconsidered.
Wednesday’s recommendation comes despite local civil society groups insisting that the government had failed to address most of the reforms requested of them, including ‘de-oligarchisation’, judicial reforms, and improving the freedom of the press.
This story will be updated…
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