Georgian PM Meets European Council President

European Council President Donald Tusk said after meeting Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili in Brussels on February 9 that Georgia’s upcoming parliamentary elections in October as well as EU visa-free travel for Georgian citizens were discussed.

Noting that Georgia and the EU are “true partners”, Tusk said that cooperation will become even more comprehensive as the Association Agreement enters fully into force.

The agreement, also involving deep and comprehensive free trade treaty, which was signed in June 2014 and a large part of which has been provisionally applied since September 2014, has already been ratified by all the EU-member states and the European Parliament.

“We talked about the upcoming parliamentary elections in Georgia. And we agree that free and pluralistic media environment and an open and vibrant political environment are prerequisites for success,” Tusk said after the meeting with the Georgian PM.

“Continued reforms of the judiciary, rule of law and human rights are important priorities and I underlined the EU’s readiness to assist. It is crucial that criminal investigations and prosecutions be evidence-based, transparent and impartial, in line with the commitments of the Association Agreement,” the European Council President said.

He said that the issue of visa-free travel in the Schengen area for the Georgian citizens was also “discussed at length”.

The European Commission said in December that Georgia fulfilled all the benchmarks of its visa liberalisation action plan and that it would propose in “early 2016” to the EU-member states to allow visa-free travel to the Schengen area for Georgian citizens.

Tusk congratulated Georgia on “the outstanding reforms” undertaken in the process of implementing visa liberalisation action plan and added without elaborating when the process might be finalized that it is now up to the member states and the European Parliament “to bring this process to a successful conclusion.”

PM Kvirikashvili, who started a two-day visit to Brussels on February 9, said that with all the technical requirements fulfilled, “we hope that visa-free regime will be shortly introduced for the citizens of Georgia.”

He said that it would be a “strong demonstration for Georgia and other partners that the European choice delivers concrete results.”

The European Council President said that that EU shares Georgia’s “concerns about the continued implementation of the so-called ‘treaties’ [on alliance] between Russia and Abkhazia and South Ossetia.”