I appeal to our Georgian friends: we want you to join the European Union, but you must meet our standards and if you don’t, then you will not be able to join. Such a statement the German Ambassador to Georgia made before the opening of tte international conference “EU Enlargement - A Geopolitical Necessity and the Next Steps for the EU Candidate States”.

“As you know, based on the actions of the Georgian government, the European Council, which consists of 27 heads of state and government, decision-makers on enlargement, decided on June 27 to suspend the accession process with Georgia. The accession process of Georgia has been halted. Now this is the policy of the EU and it is very sad, because everything could have been completely different, we have been moved forward very quickly, we want to move forward, but the speed and quality of the accession process is in the hands of the candidate.

As for Germany, we are also reviewing our relations with Georgia. As you know, we have a very broad and deep relationship. Together with the US, we are one of the largest donors of development cooperation in Georgia. We have decided not to make new commitments to Georgia at the moment, therefore there are no new financial commitments from Germany to Georgia at the moment. Also, the German armed forces canceled their participation in the Noble Partner exercises. We canceled the big legal forum that was held in Tbilisi last year and was supposed to be held in Berlin this summer. We are considering further actions.

To sum up, the process of joining the EU is suspended. This is very sad, we should be in a much better position, we should move forward, and I appeal to our Georgian friends: we want you to join the EU, but you know the process. You must meet our standards and if you do not, then you will not be able to join. So, Georgian citizens and Georgian friends should think about how important the EU is for you, your kids, your grandchildren. If you want that, you have to get back to our course”, - said Peter Fischer.