Bulgarian, Latvian FMs, EU Commissioner to Attend Ratification of AA by Georgian Parliament
Foreign ministers of Bulgaria and Latvia, as well as EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle will attend an extraordinary session of the Georgian Parliament in Kutaisi for the ratification of the Association Agreement with the EU on July 18.
Commissioner Füle, as well as Bulgarian and Latvian foreign ministers, Kristian Vigenin and Edgars Rinkēvičs, respectively, will address the parliamentary session, according to the Georgian Foreign Ministry.
Georgia’s Association Agreement with the EU, which was signed on June 27, was discussed by parliamentary committees in Kutaisi on Thursday.
Foreign Minister, Maia Panjikidze, will present the agreement before lawmakers; PM Irakli Garibashvili is also expected to address the Parliament.
It was unclear as of Thursday evening if President Giorgi Margvelashvili would be attending the session. On July 16 president’s spokesperson said that no invitation had been received by the president’s administration and some GD lawmakers said that no invitation was at all needed for the President to arrive in the Parliament.
During his visit Commissioner Füle will announce about new EU financial support for Georgia that will target trade, private sector development and justice sector reform to help in the implementation of the deep and comprehensive free trade treaty, which is part of the Association Agreement.
EU’s Association Agreements with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine have already been ratified by Romania, Lithuania and Latvia. The agreement has to be ratified by all the EU-member states and the European Parliament. But the agreement envisages its provisional application even before it is ratified by the EU.