The European Parliament approved its annual report on the implementation of the common foreign and security policy that said the “future of the peoples of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia as well as the Western Balkans lies within the European Union”.

The document reaffirmed the commitment to the European Union’s enlargement, to which it said “there is no alternative”, and which it called “more than ever a geostrategic investment” in a “stable, strong and united” EU.

“Reaffirms that the future of the peoples of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia as well the Western Balkans lies within the EU; reaffirms its commitment to enlargement, to which there is no alternative and which is more than ever a geostrategic investment in a stable, strong and united EU; strongly believes that a prospect of full EU membership for the countries striving to become Member States of the EU is in the Union’s own political, economic and security interest; calls on Georgia to tangibly deliver on the priorities drawn up by the Commission and endorsed by the European Council in its conclusions of 23 and 24 June 2022…

Georgia was the first country to experience a full-scale Russian military aggression in August 2008, when Russia attempted to forcibly change the borders of a sovereign state in Europe, to occupy regions which are an indivisible part of Georgia - Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia - and take steps towards their de facto annexation, to expel hundreds of thousands of people from their homes as a result of ethnic cleansing and to divide societies with occupation lines”, - reads the report.

The European Parliament also urged the European Union to keep demanding that Russia implement its obligations under the EU-mediated 2008 ceasefire agreement that ended the five-day conflict between the two states.

The document also welcomed the granting of EU member candidate status to Ukraine, Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and called for it to be granted to Georgia, provided that the priorities specified in the European Commission’s opinion are addressed by the country’s authorities.

The report reiterated the EU’s commitment to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia within their internationally recognised borders, and supported their efforts to “fully” enforce these principles.