The Administration of the President released a statement regarding the postponement of Salome Zourabichvili’s visit to Strasbourg.

“Due to the artificially delayed consent from the Georgian Government, the President of Georgia has decided to postpone the crucial visit to Strasbourg, as she believes that this should be a step towards depolarization and not the other way around.

The opportunity to address the European Parliament and meet with the highest representatives of the European Union should be used as much as possible to strengthen efforts for the candidate status. Therefore the appropriate time for the visit will be selected together with the President of the European Parliament”, - reads the statement.

The Administration of the Government already responded to the statement.

“Information that we artificially delayed the approval process, which became the reason for the postponement of the visit, is false. The working process and specification of technical details were underway between the Administration of the Government and the Administration of the President.

The last letter from the Administration of the President was received by the Administration of the Government yesterday, April 12, and the next day, on April 13, written consent was sent to her regarding the working visit to the French Republic, Strasbourg, on April 17-19. In addition, written consent was sent to the President of Georgia regarding a working visit to the United Kingdom.

We note that in relation to the President’s working visit to France and Belgium on March 13-16, the Administration of the Government gave its approval on March 13 in response to the letter received from the Administration of the President on March 10. Accordingly, the Administration of the Government immediately gave its consent to the previous visits as well as the current visit”, - reads the statement.