On 7 November 2024, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament held confirmation hearing, during which Marta Kos, Slovenian candidate and Commissioner-designate for Enlargement 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 condition would be for the government of Georgia to show us they are willing go this route. EU would also expect that first the anti-LGBT and anti-foreign agents laws would be abolished. She said that EU is prepared to support Georgia in its EU integration journey and has prepared a financial package for reforms, as well as for “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 has been done and nothing is completed yet”, she said, expressing her hope for the support of the European Parliament in continuing to help Georgia.
Marta Kos said that there is still hope for a return to the European path with the help of democratic forces, and perhaps also with the actions of the government. She reiterated that a first condition is the removal of “laws that are against European values.”
The European Commission officially recommended that Georgia be granted candidate status by the European Union on 8 November 2023. The negotiation process with Georgia’s government has been frozen because of the government’s decision to adopt anti-democratic legislation, including the so called Foreign Agents Law.
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