The candidate status granted to Georgia only 2 months ago shows already its benefits. Such a statement the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement made at a joint briefing held with the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Kobakhidze, in Brussels.

“And it already pays dividends, not only for Georgia, and the people of Georgia, but also for the European Union. And this is why I think that if there is one conclusion to be drawn out of today’s discussion is that we have agreed to speed up our work, be it the progress on the EU path and the nine steps that still needs to be done, be it the implementation of the economic and investment plan, or be it the economic reform, to make Georgia a truly European country and to make it part of the European single market.

We’ve seen that in the enlargement tasks, Georgia has been not only able to deliver but also willing to deliver. This is what has been reflected by the decisions of our leaders. And this is why now it is crucial to capitalize on this decision. And this is why we’ve been asking our Georgian friends to speed up their work, be the judicial reform, be other parts of the reform agenda that we have set out together in the nine steps, so that we can move to the next stage, because this is the purpose - to get Georgia into the European Union. So we don’t stop here. There’s a lot of work ahead of us and with the decision of becoming a candidate country, the work will only be more.

We’ve mobilized 1.9 billion euros of investment through the economic and investment investment plans to Georgia. These are these are investments that are going directly to the economy of Georgia.

These are going to sectors like energy, transport, environment or even human development. These are investments that are delivering already growth in jobs on the ground. And I think with this plan, we have still quite a bit of potential left, which we have agreed to use even faster and even more. Maybe the most important and most tangible project that we have in front of us is the Black Sea electricity and broadband internet cable project. This is a landmark project and not only a landmark project, but this is something which should serve as a blueprint with other partners, not only in the eastern partner countries, but also in the southern neighbourhood, or even in the Western Balkans.

Of course, we discussed the transport connectivity, where new trade routes are key. And Georgia has all the potential to become the center of a new trade route. But for that we need the Black Sea to become the next corridor towards Europe and for that we need to refurbish the ports of Georgia”, - said Olivér Várhelyi.