“I would like to greet the EU Ambassador to Georgia, Mr. Pawel Herczynski, the representatives of the diplomatic missions, members of Parliament and the representatives of the Platform. It is our third time to assemble within this format to discuss the EU integration issues. I would like to congratulate you on a positive recommendation issued by the European Commission on November 8 and thank you for the cooperation we enjoyed in this format”, - the Speaker of the Parliament stated at the Conference “Georgia’s Road to the European Union”.

The Parliament and the National Platform of Georgia of Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum hold the third joint Conference today.

As Speaker Papuashvili noted, a positive recommendation from the European Commission was a timely, crucial and proper decision.

“It is also the result of our collaboration, for which I would like to express my gratitude to you. One of the tangible outcomes that we have achieved was a Cooperation Memorandum, which was signed by the Parliament and the Platform. The conclusion of the Memorandum was particularly underlined and highlighted in the recommendation of the European Commission”, - the Speaker stated and thanked the members of the National Platform of Georgia of Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum and the Chairperson, Nino Chkhobadze.

According to him, on the one hand, Georgia received the recommendation of the European Commission, and on the other hand, the expectation of a decision of the European Council exists.

“Let’s bide our time for the final decision anticipated by the Georgian people for years already. We hope for a positive decision. By this recommendation, concerning 12 paragraphs, we conclude a chapter related to the candidacy and open another window for progressing to the next phase of negotiations that 9 recommendations have been set out for”, - said Shalva Papuashvili.

As he added, the so-called de-oligarchization action plan will be represented at the Conference today.

The agenda also includes key topics as follows: judicial reform, electoral process and depolarization, de-oligarchization, media and countering disinformation, compliance of Georgia with the EU common foreign and security policy.