“The government bears full responsibility for securing Georgia’s candidate status. It must review and intensify its efforts to seize this historic opportunity,” reads a joint statement signed by more than 140 civil society organizations.
The civil society organizations quoted their sources as saying that the European Commission could recommend in October 2023 that Georgia be granted candidate status for EU membership “if Georgia continues to pursue reforms and the human rights and democracy situation does not deteriorate in the coming period”.
The CSOs stressed that “any legislative initiatives or actions that contradict core European values will be considered as sabotage of the candidate status and contrary to the Article 78 of the Georgian Constitution.”
“Last month, we, the citizens of Georgia, once again reaffirmed our loyalty to European values and our unwavering commitment to the path leading to EU membership. Through widespread public consolidation around EU membership as a national goal, we have shown that the people of Georgia deserve candidate status,” the CSOs noted.
They also emphasized that their primary goal is to make every effort to secure candidate status. “We, as a united society, must proudly announce at the end of 2023 that Georgia is a candidate country for EU membership,” the organizations added.
The statement is signed by Transparency International Georgia (TIG), International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), Open Society Foundation and Georgia’s Reforms Associates (GRASS), among others (over 100 CSOs altogether).
Article 78 of the Constitution of Georgia: The constitutional bodies shall take all measures within the scope of their competences to ensure the full integration of Georgia into the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
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