Papuashvili: No One Can Name a Specific Date for EU Enlargement

Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili says society must know the reality: today and tomorrow no one is thinking about EU enlargement, and for 2030 it is a big open question what decision will be made. According to him, Georgia must develop by its own logic in order to achieve its goals.

According to Papuashvili, anyone who names one specific date for enlargement is, at best, not sincere and, at worst, is lying.

"It is important to look realistically at the world and at the EU enlargement process. One thing we should know: anyone who names one specific date regarding enlargement is at best not sincere and at worst is lying. Today no one can name a date, a year when EU enlargement will happen, and cannot name which countries will be included in this enlargement. Brussels has chosen a very wrong policy of creating false hopes," said Shalva Papuashvili.

According to him, society is being incited to believe that enlargement will happen today or tomorrow at the latest. Papuashvili says it is also in question what form the EU will take, as the rules are changing during the game, and there is talk that new members will not be full-fledged.

The Parliament Speaker noted that this is a process that neither domestic political discussion nor the country's development should be subordinated to. According to him, the country must develop by its own logic in order to strengthen and unite its economy.

"The final result may be EU membership, and not the other way around, that those incited by the idea of EU membership break their necks, as some candidate countries are doing," said Papuashvili.