Congratulations to both Ukraine and Moldova on their candidate status, which will be finally confirmed by the council in a week. Such a statement made today the Chairman of the Georgian Dream.

“As for the decision regarding Georgia. Georgia has been waiting for the official recognition of the European perspective by the EU for many years. We are glad that today this perspective was officially recognized by the European Commission and they offered us a concrete guide to obtaining candidate status.

As European leaders have directly pointed out to us in advance, geographical location has also prevented Georgia from gaining candidate status.

We want to remind the public that due to the geographical factor, Georgia received the European Neighborhood Policy Action Plan 2 years later compared to Ukraine and Moldova.

Also, Georgia started visa liberalization negotiations 4 years later compared to Ukraine and 2 years later compared to Moldova. Georgia received visa liberalization action plan 3 years later compared to Ukraine and 2 years later compared Moldova, but got visa-free travel earlier compared to Ukraine. Similarly, Georgia started negotiations on an Association Agreement 3 years later compared to Ukraine, however, it signed an Association Agreement 1 year earlier than Ukraine.

We hope that the geographical factor will not become a reason for delaying the granting of candidate or member status to Georgia in the future”, - said Irakli Kobakhidze.