Georgian PM: if EU wants to open accession talks, let them put it on table, I will sign it today

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Friday said if the European Union wanted to open accession talks with the country, his Government was ready to sign it immediately.

In his remarks, Kobakhidze noted that the blackmail over the opening of the accession talks should end.

“If the European Union wants to open the accession talks, let them put it on the table. I will sign it today. However, we are making it clear that this issue will not be on our agenda for the next four years, so no one can use it as a tool for blackmail”, the PM said.

“We [the ruling Georgian Dream party] said that we are removing this issue from the agenda for the next four years. For two years, the [European Union membership] candidate status was used for blackmail. It was a catastrophe that was happening to our country when we needed peace in the country when the war started in Ukraine. It was at that time that they began to blackmail our country with the [EU membership] candidate status and this continued for almost two years”, the PM said.

“Then this blackmail tool became outdated, we were granted [EU membership] candidate status and they started blackmailing us with the opening of [accession] talks. All this has been going on for three years now and is an artificial tool with which they are trying to divide the public, incite polarisation and radicalism. This must end” he concluded.

Kobakhidze on Thursday said the ruling party had decided not to put the issue of opening accession talks with the EU on the agenda until the end of 2028 and highlighted that Georgia would continue its path towards the European Union, but wouldn’t allow anyone to keep the country “in a constant state of blackmail and manipulation”.