The European Council’s decision on granting the European perspective to Georgia is a recognition of the progress achieved by the country over the years. Such a statement made the Prime Minister of Georgia at a joint press-conference with Karl Nehammer, the Federal Chancellor of Austria.

“It is a very important period for us, Georgians, we were waiting for the decision of the European Commission. The decision of the European Council can be evaluated as historic, as stated by the European leaders themselves. We Georgians share common European values, our main motivation is for Georgia to become a member state of the European Union, a member country of the big European family. I would also like to point out that, of course, giving us a European perspective is a recognition of the progress achieved over the years, and we appreciate it very much.

We [the ruling team] came up with the initiative to involve not only the Government, but also opposition parties and representatives of the civil sector to participate in this process [of fulfilling the conditions], so that this process becomes inclusive and there is broad involvement - we guarantee this to our partners", Garibashvili noted.

I highly appreciates the friendship, relationship and cooperation with Austria. We talked about priority areas for the two Governments to focus on over the coming months and years. There is a great potential for further deepening and strengthening mutual cooperation in economy, trade, security and more.

The Austrian Chancellor had once again confirmed readiness of his country to help Georgia in various directions.

In terms of security, we have a challenge related to the occupation. A large part of our territory is occupied, and the situation in the occupied territories is full of challenges. We are very worried about what is happening in Ukraine, we experienced this in 2008 when we had a full-scale war with Russia. I want to emphasize once again that ending the war should be in everyone"s interest. There is no alternative to peace, and we must do everything possible to stop this war, restore peace and stability”, - said Irakli Garibashvili.