The Daily Beat: 29 August
Speaking at the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia, the EUCO President, Charles Michel, said the EU and the aspirant states “must be ready to enlarge by 2030.” President Michel also noted that the European leaders will discuss enlargement and “will take a stand on the opening of the negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova” during the next EU Council meetings, adding, “and I expect, also Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia to be back on the table.” According to the EUCO President, all states granted the EU membership perspective – of which Georgia is one – should be referred to as “future member states.”
Ruling Georgian Dream party leaders reacted to Charles Michel‘s EU enlargement plan, expressing concerns about the clarity of certain aspects of the announcement but displaying staunch commitment to the EU integration process. “Everything will be done to obtain the EU candidate status … By 2030, if anyone is ready for EU membership, it will be Georgia, first of all, based on the policies that our government is pursuing,” said the ruling party chair, Irakli Kobakhidze, adding that Charles Michel’s statement was “bit general” in terms of naming the countries sought to join the EU by 2030.
Opposition politicians, on their part, praised the EU enlargement plan, describing it as unprecedently encouraging and a last chance not to miss the wave of the EU enlargement. Opposition leaders also noted that the Georgian Dream party should be removed from power, as it would only undermine the country’s EU integration process and stall the much-needed reform process.
A group of six Ukrainian citizens who were stranded for ten days at Georgian-Russian border checkpoint are finally allowed entry into Georgia. According to the foreign ministry, “the Georgian side has decided to let them enter the territory of Georgia, where they will wait to complete the relevant procedures. Almost all Ukrainians were former prisoners from the Kherson region, an HIV-positive man among them.
Chairman of Russia’s Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Grigory Karasin, visited occupied Tskhinvali on the 15th anniversary of its recognition by the Russian Federation, where, on behalf of Russia, pledged to do utmost to expand international recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. “You know that the Russian Federation is doing everything possible at all levels and in all its contacts – including with China and India and other countries – to move forward towards recognizing both the Republic of South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia,” said Karasin, expressing confidence that recognition will happen sooner or later.
US Ambassador Kelly Degnan, whose term as an Ambassador expired this summer, published a farewell letter addressed to Georgian citizens, expressing her affection for Georgia’s culture, nature, and people. “Although I’m leaving, I’m taking a lot of love and friendship from my dear friends from all over Georgia. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as the United States Ambassador to this beautiful country,”- wrote the Ambassador, concluding her letter with a quote from a Georgian poem.
