EU Commissioner Speaks of Georgia’s European Integration

European Commissioner for neighborhood policy and enlargement negotiations, Johannes Hahn, addresses 13th annual international conference, Georgia’s European Way, in Batumi, July 14, 2016.

Addressing annual conference in Batumi on Georgia’s European integration, European Commissioner for neighborhood policy, Johannes Hahn, said that despite of the Brexit vote, the EU will remain committed to partner countries in its neighborhood.

In his speech at the 13th annual international conference, Georgia’s European Way, in Black Sea resort and port city of Batumi, Hahn also spoke of implementation of the Association Agreement with its deep and comprehensive free trade area, as well as on visa liberalisation and “fundamentals” of EU’s contribution to economic development of partners, stressing on importance of judicial reform in this regard.
 
In the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the EU, he said, it is important to “reassure you that the EU is sticking to the commitments that it has made with its partner countries in the neighborhood.”

“There will be no change in our relations, in our intensity to deal with you, to work with you and to work in particular on your European perspective,” Hahn said.

“You stay our neighbors – Brexit, yes or no – you are our neighbors and we have a strong interest to tighten further our relations with you, to support you in your initiatives towards the European Union, and to also play an important role here in the region,” the Commissioner said.

Speaking about Georgia’s European path at the same conference, PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili alluded to the issue by saying that “people often forget” EU’s benefits. He also said that he has instructed “all of our ministers” to help increase public awareness about EU’s “many benefits to our citizens” and singled out in this regard State Minister for European Integration Davit Bakradze’s efforts. “He [Bakradze] is so good in it that he can be invited in some of the European countries to do the same,” the PM said.

On Georgia’s EU visa liberalisation, Commissioner Hahn said in his address that the process is expected to be finalized in October at the latest.

“I am fully aware that visa-free travel continues to be a top priority for the government. Georgia has fulfilled all its obligations under the visa liberalisation action plan,” Hahn said.

“This is truly a great success and a credit to the respective Georgian governments and their reform-oriented administration that made fulfillment of the visa liberalisation action plan a top national priority, supported, if I understand rightly, by all main parties in the country,” he said.

“I am looking forward to the day when the Georgian citizens will be able to travel to the EU without a visa and I believe that we are not that far away from that day… at the latest in October this year,” Hahn said.

Slovakia’s Foreign Minister, Miroslav Lajčák, whose country took over EU presidency this month, said on July 12 that the Slovak EU presidency has “an ambition to complete” Georgia’s EU visa liberalisation process before the October 8 parliamentary elections in Georgia.

The Association Agreement, including deep and comprehensive free trade area (DCFTA), which was signed between the EU and Georgia in 2014, fully entered into force on July 1, 2016.

Commissioner Hahn said that the implementation of DCFT “is progressing.”

“Most of Georgia’s first year DCFTA commitments have been fulfilled,” he said, adding that Georgia has done a “hard work” to achieve this.

“But a considerable amount of work remains to be done,” he continued. “Georgia chose to implement most of its approximation commitments at a later stage, starting from the third year of the application of DCFTA [provisional application of the agreements started from September, 2014] – that means as of 2017.”

“This means that some important trade issues will need to be addressed in not too distant future,” Hahn said and also stressed that fully adapting to DCFTA is not only the government’s task, but also requires “strong and committed engagement of the parliament and whole of the society.”

He said that it is about hundreds or even thousands of regulations, modifying laws in the approximation process.

“One such topic is technical barriers to trade – there Georgia is already making great progress, in particular when it comes to adopting European standards, which will accelerate the modernization process of Georgia’s industries – both those exporting to the EU and those operating on Georgia’s domestic market,” Hahn said.

He also said that “improvement” of Georgia’s business climate was “another positive development.”

He said that economic development is at the heart of EU’s contribution to stabilizing the neighborhood.

To achieve this challenging objective, Hahn said, partner countries need to make every effort to have several ”fundamentals” in place: political stability; sound economic governance, strong market institutions, and an enabling environment for private sector.

“There are two issues to which we pay particular attention: tackling corruption and judicial reform,” he said.

“These are make-or-break issues. If they are not successfully addressed, nothing else can succeed. Legislation is worthless if it is not upheld by the courts. No amount of deregulation will compensate for corrupt practices,” Hahn said.

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