"Granting Georgia candidate status is an advance from the European Union" Expert opinion on Caliber.Az

A regular meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the EU and Eastern Partnership countries has recently been held in Brussels, where Georgia received the status of a candidate for EU accession. European diplomats this time praised Georgia for its democratic reforms and European values. Unlike the previous few years, they had no doubts that Tbilisi deserved the EU candidate status.

Shota Apkhaidze, political scientist, director of the Center for Islamic Studies of the Caucasus, expert of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, answered Caliber.Az's questions in connection with the changed situation.

- What do you think has suddenly happened to the position of the EU ruling circles? Where has the criticism of the Georgian authorities, which was flowing from Brussels not so long ago, gone?

- This position of Brussels looks strange - to change its opinion abruptly when a year and a half ago they thought quite differently. And the Georgian authorities have done almost nothing of the sort since then. Judge for yourself, Josep Borrell, who was one of the main critics of the Georgian Dream, said the following at a recent meeting: "The good news is that Georgia is moving forward towards EU membership. I urge Georgia to keep moving in this direction".

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said that Tallinn supports EU enlargement because without it Estonia would not be in the European family. Estonian politicians have always been subjective towards Georgia, they support the opposition and are waiting for Saakashvili's revenge over the Georgian Dream. Strangely, Estonia has taken such a position, it is certainly a Washington instruction. As for the issue of EU enlargement, the Estonians have confused the geography, the Baltic States are part of geographical Europe, which is not the case with Georgia.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said that by granting Georgia EU candidate status, the Eastern Partnership will evolve and its members will be closer to Europe than ever before. Landsbergis also dramatically changed his position, as did his Estonian counterpart.

Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins, who is known for criticising Georgia's leadership and has often called on the West to exclude Georgia from all Western projects, also now thinks differently: "I expect Georgia to be granted candidate status. It is clear that not only the people want to join the EU, but also the authorities clearly indicate this intention."

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said that Helsinki is a supporter of EU enlargement. At the same time, she assessed the negotiations with Georgia as "very good".

- How would you assess the reaction of the Georgian leadership to becoming a candidate?

 - Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili stated that obtaining the coveted status became possible due to the victory over external and internal enemies who tried to drag Georgia into a war with Russia: "We did not jump on one foot, did not kneel, but firmly and honourably achieved this victory. Today will go down in the history of Georgia as a day of triumph, a deserved victory of the proud and honourable Georgian people. From today, Georgia has become a European country!".

Georgian Foreign Minister Ilya Darchiashvili also stated his position on the issue. According to him, if Georgia has been granted the status, it means that the country's leadership is doing everything right: "The statements of our partners show that we are consistently reforming the country so that the final membership will become tangible very soon.

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said that on December 14 Tbilisi heard the "historical truth" of being part of the European family. The Times, a British newspaper, seemed to agree with him, calling Tbilisi "Europe's second Berlin" because of the local wine and nightlife.

- How do you explain all these rather sudden changes after all?

 - The West tried to communicate with Georgia with the help of a whip but got an unexpected result. Tbilisi began to withdraw from the influence of the EU and the US. The Georgian authorities began to publicly defy their Western partners, which had never happened before. As a result, Brussels was afraid of losing the country and changed from anger to mercy and gave Georgia candidate status.

A positive decision on this issue should have been taken a year ago, but this did not happen due to the desire of some EU representatives to punish Georgia for its lack of critical attitude towards Russia.

In the past, the West hoped that the denial of status could change the political situation in the country, that the opposition would be able to overthrow the government. However, expectations of a popular uprising against the government did not justify themselves. On the contrary, the majority of Georgians a year ago took the news about the denial of candidate status as an insult, because they believe that in terms of the development of democracy, they have gone much further than Moldova and Ukraine. In the end, the West exchanged the carrot for the stick and gave Georgia status.

 - Well, all's well that ends well. It turns out that there are still some steps left to be taken, some reforms to make Georgia join the EU?

- Candidate status does not guarantee EU membership at all. Türkiye has been in limbo for more than 30 years. Now, apart from Turkey, Albania, Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine, Montenegro, and now Georgia have official status as candidate states. Georgia's accession to the EU will happen very soon. Firstly, the EU itself does not want to expand. Secondly, Tbilisi is not ready for it either politically or economically. Georgia's goal is to become a full-fledged member of the EU with a successful economy and political system, not one of its poorest countries.

Granting Georgia candidate status is an advance from the European Union. The decision is absolutely political, and this can be seen in another comparison - in terms of corruption and many other criteria Georgia looks much better than Ukraine, but the latter has already been granted the start of EU membership negotiations, while Georgia has only been recognised as a candidate. Georgia can reform as much as it wants, but the EU expects two things from it, not EU membership. These are the two aspects that Ursula von der Leyen and Borrell have labelled aloud.

The first is the depolarisation of the political system. That is the freedom of the opposition and Saakashvili. And associated with these other criteria of democracy, such as non-discrimination (e.g. LGBT).

The second aspect was openly articulated by Borrell during his September visit to Tbilisi: "My second message was about Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. The EU supports Ukraine and will continue to do so as long as necessary. The EU welcomes the clarity of Georgia's position on this issue on international platforms. We and our closest partners must coordinate our efforts to isolate Russia internationally. I was therefore pleased to note our active cooperation with Georgia in preventing the circumvention of sanctions. Much is being done in Georgia in this area, and I emphasised our recognition of these efforts.  

However, I also had to point out that we regret the resumption of direct air links between Georgia and Russia, making Tbilisi a transfer point for Russians on their way to Europe. In addition, there is a need for greater cooperation in countering Russian hybrid activities, starting with Russian propaganda and disinformation wars. The EU will continue to support Georgia's independent media and civil society to build resilience to information manipulation. Independent media and fair access to information are the foundation of democracy.

Convergence with our foreign policy is a commitment that we expect all countries applying for membership of the European Union to accept. However, there is still much room for improvement in this part at the moment".

So, Georgia's EU membership remains a distant prospect and a myth for political speculation.