Georgian PM Meets French President in Bordeaux
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili met with French President François Hollande in Bordeaux on the sideline of opening Cité du Vin wine centre on May 31.
PM Kvirikashvili said after lifting of visa requirements for Georgian citizens in the Schengen area was the main topic of discussion during the brief meeting.
“I explained and informed him how important it is for Georgia politically, as well as for our Western course, to complete successfully visa liberalisation process; he [the French President] accepted our request positively and pledged his support and to discuss this issue with competent [French] ministries in order to have a go-ahead from France over this issue as soon as possible,” PM Kvirikashvili told Georgian journalists in Bordeaux.
The European Commission put forth the proposal to lift visa requirements for Georgian citizens, holding biometric passports, for a short-term stay in the Schengen area on March 9.
But before it can go into force, the proposal has to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council of European Union, a body representing the executive governments of the EU member states. Tbilisi wants the process to be completed before the European Parliament’s summer break.
Coreper, a committee of EU ambassadors, will be discussing the issue at a meeting in Brussels on June 1.
It will be a second discussion of Georgia’s visa liberalisation by Coreper, which prepares issues for further consideration by the council of EU ministers. If EU ambassadors agree on the issue, Georgia’s visa liberalisation will then move to council of ministers. EU ministers in charge of home affairs and migration issues will hold their next council on June 9-10.
