Georgia Outlines ENP Priorities
A team of EU Troika, which visited Georgia on October 25-27, vowed to launch individual talks with Georgia over the Action Plan under the EU Neighborhood Policy (ENP) “as soon as possible.”
“We are very disappointed on the EU side that these negotiations have not yet started. There are problems, which we hope we”ll resolve quickly and I want to assure the Georgian side that what we”ll be negotiating with Georgia is the individual action plan, tailored specifically to what Georgia and EU want to do together. There is no question of EU trying to design a single code for three South Caucasian countries. There will be individual negotiations, there will be individual plans and we are looking forward to starting this process as soon as possible,” Sir Brian Fall, the UK Special Representative for the South Caucasus said after talks with the Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili on October 25.
The team of EU Troika also included Kurt Juul, the European Commission Head of Unit for the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia and Heidemaria Guerer from the Austrian Foreign Ministry. Heikki Talvitie, EU Special Representative to South Caucasus was also accompanying the team of EU officials.
Georgian State Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Issues Giorgi Baramidze briefed the EU Troika about those priorities the Georgian authorities want to focus on during the process of developing the Action Plan. These priorities are:
• Cooperation in the field of the rule of law – to radically alter the situation within the judiciary system and reform the General Prosecutor”s Office and the Ministry of Justice;
• Cooperation in the field of security; more specifically, cooperation over the issues of border defence;
• Cooperation over the so-called “Four Freedoms” – freedom of movement of good, persons, services and capital. Georgia is putting an accent on the simplification of visa regime for Georgian citizens and the facilitation of the import of Georgia-made products to the European market;
• Cooperation in the field of infrastructure;
• Cooperation in the field of education and science;
• Peaceful settlement of conflicts;
• Environmental protection;
• Regional cooperation.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)
